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THE

COAL QUESTION;

AN INQUIRY
CONCERNING THE PROGRESS OF THE NATION,

AND THE

PROBABLE EXHAUSTION OF OUR COAL-MINES.

W. STANLEY JEVONS, M.A.

FFl.LOW OP tTNIVBRSITY COLLEGE, LONDON, AN1> OF THE STATISTICAL SOCIETY.

MACMILLAN AND CO.

1865. vv

"The progressive state is in reality the cheerful and the
hearty state to all the different orders of the society ; the
stationary is dull ; the declining melancholy."

Adam Smith.

• «

CONTENTS.

PA(iK
INTRODUCTION AND OUTtlNE vii

CHAPTER I.

OPINIONS OF PREVIOUS WRITERS 1

CHAPTER II.

GEOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF THE QUESTION 22

CHAPTER III.

OF THE COST OF COAX MINING 39

CHAPTER IV.

OF THE PRICE OF COAL 57

CHAPTER V.

OF BRITISH INVENTION 68

CHAPTER VI.

OF THE ECONOMY OF FUEL 102

CHAPTER VII.

OF SUPPOSED SUBSTITUTES FOR COAL 117

CHAPTER VIII.

OF THE NATURAL LAW OF SOCIAL GROWTH 140

vi Contents.

PAOK

CHAPTER IX.

OF THE GROWTH AND MIGRATIONS OF OUR POPULATION ... 156

CHAPTER X.

OF THE CHANGE AND PROGRESS OP OUR INDUSTRY . . . . 181

CHAPTER XI.

OP OUR CONSUMPTION OF COAL » . 204

CHAPTER XII.

OF THE EXPORT OF COAL 220

CHAPTER XIII.

OF THE COMPARATIVE COAL RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT COUNTRIES 252

CHAPTER XIV.

OF THE IRON TRADE 274

CHAPTER XV.

PROBLEM OF THE TRADING BODIES 305

CHAPTER XVI.

OF TAXES AND RESTRICTIONS ON THE COAL TRADE .... 328

CHAPTER XVII.

CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS 344

INTRODUCTION.

Day by day it becomes more obvious that the
Coal we happily possess in excellent quality and
abundance is the Mainspring of Modem Material
Civilization. As Fuel — or the source of fire — it is
the source at once of mechanical motion and of
chemical change. Accordingly it is the chief agent
in almost every improvement or discovery in the
arts which the present age brings forth. It is to
us indispensable for domestic purposes, aud it has
of late years been found to yield a series of organic
substances, which puzzle us by their complexity,
please us by their beautiful colours, and serve us

And as the source especially of Steam and Iron,
Coal is all-powerful. This affe has been called the
Iron Age, L it i. txue that i^n is tiie material
of most great novelties. By its strength, endurance,
and wide range of qualities, it is fitted to be the
fulcrum and lever of great works, while steam is

viii Introduction .

the motive power. But coal alone can command in
sufficient abundance either the iron or the steam;
and coal, therefore, commands this age — the Age
of Coal.

Coal, in truth, stands not beside but entirely
above all other commodities. It is the material
energy of the country — the universal aid — the
factor in everything we do. With coal almost any
feat is possible or easy ; without it we are thrown
back into the laborious poverty of early times.

With such facts familiarly before us, it can be
no matter of surprise that year by year we make
hvrgor draughts upon a material of such myriad
qualities — of such miraculous powers.

But it is at the same time impossible that men
of foivsight should not turn to compare with some
anxiety the maaaes yearly drawn with the quantities
known or supi>oseil to lie within these islands.

Geologists of eminence, acquainted with the con-
tents of our strat^i, and accustomed in the study
of their groat science to look over long periods of
time with judgment and enlightenment, were long
iigi> ivunfully struck by the essentially limited
naturo of our main wealth. And though others
have lHH>n found to reassure the puMic, roundly
assisting that all antioipatious of exhaustion are
grvnindle^ and ab$uni and *Mnay be deferred for

Introduction. ix

an indefinite period," yet misgivings have con-
stantly recurred to those really examining the
question. Not long since the subject acquired new
weight when prominently brought forward by Sir
W. Armstrong in his Address to the British Asso-
ciation, at Newcastle, the very birth-place of the
coal trade.

This question concerning the duration of our
present cheap supplies of coal cannot but excite
deep interest and anxiety wherever or whenever
it is mentioned. For a little reflection will show
that coal is almost the sole necessary basis of our
material Power, and is that, consequently, which
gives efficiency to our moral and intellectual capa-
bilities. England's manufacturing and commercial
greatness, at least, is at staJce in this questi.on, nor
can we be sure that material decay may not involve
us in moral and intellectual retrogression. And as
there is no part of the civilized world where the
life of our true and beneficent Commonwealth can
be a matter of indifference, so to an Englishman
who knows the grand and steadfast course his
country has pursued to its present point, its future
must be a matter of almost personal solicitude and
affection.

The thoughtless and selfish, indeed, who fear any
interference with the enjoyment of the present, will

Introduction.

I
I

be apt to stigmatise all reasoning about the future
as absurd and cliimericaL But the opinions of such
are closely guided by their wishes. It is true that
at the beat we see dimly into the future, but those
who acknowledge their duty to posterity will feel
impelled to use their foresight upon what facts and
guiding principles we do possess. Though many
data are at present wanting, or doubtful, our con-
clusions may be rendered so far probable as to lead
to further inquiries upon a subject of such over-
whelming importance. And we ought not at least
to delay dispersing a set of plausible fallacies about
the economy of fuel, and the discovery of substi-
tutes for coal, which at present obscure the critical
nature of the question, and are eagerly passed about
among those who like to believe that we have an
indefinite period of prosperity before us.

The writers who have hitherto discussed this
question, being chiefly geologists, have of necessity-
treated it casually, and in a one-sided manner.
There are several reasons why it should now re-
ceive fuller consideration. In the first place, the
accomplishment of a Free Trade policy, the repeal
of many laws that tended to moderate our indus-
tiial progress, and the very unusual clause in the
French Treaty which secui'es a free export of coals,
are all cventj^ tending to an indefinite increase of

Introduction. xi

the consumption of coal. On the other hand, two
most useful systems of Government inquiry have
lately furnished us with new and accurate informa-
tion bearing upon the question, — ^the Geological
Survey now gives some degree of certainty to our
estimates of the coal existing within our reach,
while the retiuns of mineral statistics inform us
very exactly of the amount of coal consumed.

Taking advantage of such information, I venture
to try and shape out a first rough approximation to
the probable progress of our industry and consump-
tion of coal in a system of free industry. We of
course deal only with what is probable. It is the
duty of a careful writer not to reject facts or cir-
cumstances because they are only probable, but to
state everything with its due weight of probability.
It will be my foremost desire* to discriminate cer-
tainty and doubt, knowledge and ignorance — to
state those data we want as well as those we have.
But I must also draw attention to principles
govenung this subject, which have rather the cer-
tainty of Natural laws than the fickleness of statis-
tical numbers.

It will be apparent that the first seven of the
following chapters are mainly devoted to the phy-
sical data of this question, and are of an intro-
ductory character. The remaining chapters, which

treat of the social and commercial aspects of the
subject, constitute the more essential part of the
present inquiry. It is this part of the subject which
seema to me to have been too much overlooked by
those who have expressed opinions concerning the
duration of our coal supplies.

I have endeavoured to present a pretty complete
outline of the available information in union with
the arguments which the facts suggest. But such
is the extent and complexity of the subject that it
is impossible to notice all the bearings of fact upon
fact. The chapters, therefore, have rather the cha-
racter of essays treating of the more important
aspect* of the question ; and I may here suitably
devote a few words to pointing out the particular
purpose of each chapter, and the beaiings of one
upon the other,

I commence by citing the opinions of earlier
writers, who have more or less shadowed forth my
conclusions; and I also quote (pp. 8-10) Mr. Hull's
estimate of the coal existing in England, and ailopt
it aa the geological datum of my ai-guments.

In considering the geological iispects of the
question I endeavour merely to give some notion
of the way in which au estimate of the existing coal
is made, and of the degree of certainty attaching to
it, deferring to the chapter upon Coal Mining the

Outline. xiii

question of the depth to which we can follow seams
of coaL It is shown that in all probability there is
no precise physical limit of deep mining (pp. 40-
43), but that the growing difl&culties of manage-
ment and extraction of coal in a very deep mine
must greatly enhance its price (pp. 43-54). It is
by this rise of price that gradual exhaustion wiU be
manifested and its deplorable effects occasioned.

I naturally pass to consider whether there are yet
in the cost of coal (pp. 57-67) any present signs of
exhaustion ; it appears that there has been no recent
rise of importance (p. 61), but that at the same time
the high price demanded for coals drawn from some
of the deepest pits indicates the high price that
must in time be demanded for even ordinary coals.

A distinct division of the inquiry comprising
Chapters V. VI. and VII. treats of inventions in
regard to the use of coal. It is shown that we owe
almost all arts to Continental nations (pp. 68-78),
except those great arts which have been called into
use here, by the cheapness (pp. 80-101) and, excel-
lence of our coal. It is shown that the constant
tendency of discovery is to render coal a more and
more efficient agent (pp. 105-116), while there is no
probability that when our coal is used up any more
powerful substitute will be forthcoming (pp. 121-
141). Nor can the economical use of coal reduce

xiv Introduction.

its consumption. On tbe contrary, by rendering its
employment more profitable, the present demand
for coal is increased and the advantage is more
strongly tlirown upon the side of those who will in
the future have the cheapest supplies (pp. 141-5).
As it is in a subsequent chapter conclusively shown
that we canuot make up for a future want of coal,
by importation from other countries (pp. 220-251),
it will appear that there is no reasonable prospect
of any relief from, a future want of the main agent
of industry. We must lose that which constitutes
our peculiar energy ; for consideiing how greatly
uur manufactures and navigation depend upon coal,
and liow vnat is our consumption of it compared
with other nations, it canuot be supposed we shall
do without coal more than a fraction of what we do
wiUl it.

I then turn to a totally different aspect of the
(juestioii, Icactiug to some estimate of the duration
of uur pniHiH-rity, I first explain the natural prin-
riplo, lliiit a nation tends to multiply itself at a
I'oiiNtiiiit rate, so as to receive not equal additions
in ('<]nul limes but additions rapidly growing greater
iukI K'-"iLl.rr {pp, 140-155).

hi I 111' dluiptt'r on PopiUation it is incidentally
p-'iiilril out tlial. tim nation, as a whole, has rapidly
ui'iiwii miirt' miiiu'nius from the time when the

Outline. xv

steam-engine and other inventions involving the
consumption of coal came into use (pp. 158-9).
Until about 1820, however, the agricultural and
manufacturing populations both increased about
equally. But the former then became excessive,
occasioning great pauperism (pp. 160-166), while it
is only our towns and coal and iron districts which
have aflforded any scope for a rapid and continuous
increase.

The more nearly, too, we approach industry
concerned directly with coal, the more rapid and
constant is the rate of growth (p. 169). The pro-
gress indeed of ahnost every part of our population
has clearly been checked by emigration (pp. 1 70-2).
But that this emigration is not due to pressure at
home is plain from the greatly increased frequency
of marriages in the last ten or fifteen years. And
though this emigration temporarily checks our
growth in mere numbers, it greatly promotes our
welfare, and tends to induce greater future growths
of population (pp. 173-180).

Attention is then drawn to the rapid and constant
rate of multiplication displayed by the iron, cotton,
shipping, and other great branches of our industry,
the progress of which is in general quite unchecked
up to the present time (pp. 191-203). The con-
sumption of coal there is every reason to suppose

xvi Introduction.

has similarly been multiplying itself at a gro'wing
rate (pp. 204-6).

The present rate of increase of our coal consump-
tion is then ascertained, and it is shown that should
the consumption multiply for rather more than
a century at the same rate, the average depth of
our coal-mines tvould be 4,000 feet, and the
average price of coal miich higher than the highest
price now paid for the f nest kinds of coal (pp. 209
-215).

It is thence simply inferred that we cajinot long
continue our present rate of ^yrogress. The first
check to our growing prosperity, however, must
render our population excessive. Emigration may
relieve it, and by exciting increased trade tend to
keep up our progress, but after a time we must
either sink down into poverty, adopting wholly new
habits, or else witness a constant ammal exodus of
the youth of the country. It is further pointed out
that the ultimate result will be to render labour so
abundant in the United States that our iron manu-
factures -vvill be underbid by the unrivalled iron and
coal resources of Pennsylvania, and in a separate
chapter it is shown that the crude iron manufacture
win in all prebability Ise our first loss, while it is
impossible to say how much of our manufactures
may not follow it.

Introduction . xvii

Possible measures for checking the waste and use
of coal are indeed briefly discussed, but the general
conviction perhaps must force itself upon the mind,
that restrictive legislation may mar but probably
cannot mend or correct the natural course of indus-
trial development Such is a general outline of my
arguments and conclusions.

When I commenced studying this question I had
little thought of some of the results, and I might
well hesitate at asserting things so little accordant
with the unbounded confidence of the present day.
But as serious misgivings do already exist, some
discussion is necessary to set them at rest, or to
confirm them, and perhaps to modify our views.
And in entering on such a discussion, an unreserved
and even an overdrawn statement of the adverse
circumstances is better than weak reticence. If my
conclusions are at all true they cannot too soon be
recognised and kept in mind ; if mistaken, I shall be
among the first to rejoice at a vindication of our
country's resources from all misgivings.

For my own part I am convinced that this ques-
tion must before long force itself upon our attention
with painful urgency. It cannot long be shirked
and shelved. It must rise by degrees into the
position of a great national and perhaps a party
question, antithetical to that of Free Trade. There

will be a Conservative Party, desirous at all cost to
secure the continued and exclusive prosperity of
this country as a main bulwark of the general good.
On the other hand, there wUl be the Liberal Party,
less cautious, more trustful in abstract principles
and the unfettered tendencies of nature.

Bulwer, in one of his Caxtonian Essays, has de-
scribed, with all his usual felicity of thought and
language, the confliction of these two great pai-ties.
They have fought many battles upon this soil
already, and the result as yet is that wonderful
union of stability and change, of the good old and
the good new, which makes the English Constitution.

But if it shall seem that this Is not to last indefi-
nitely—that some of our latest determinations of
policy lead directly to the exhaustion of our main
wealth — the letting down of our mainspring — I
know not how to express the difficulty of the moral
and political questions which will arise. Some will
wish to hold to our adopted principles, and leave
commerce and the consumption of coal unchecked
even to the last — while others, subordinating com-
merce to purposes of a higher nature, will tend to
the prohibition of coal exports, the restriction of
trade, and the adoption of every means of sparing
the fuel which makes our welfare and supports our
influence upon the nations of the world.

THE

COAL QUESTION,

CHAPTEK L

OPINIONS OF PREVIOUS WRITERS.

One of the earliest writers to conceive the possibility
of exhausting our coal mines was John Williams, a
mineral surveyor. In his ** Natural History of the
Mineral Kingdom/' first published in 1789, and
chiefly engaged with coal, he gave a chapter to the
consideration of " T%e Limited Qvxintity of Coal of
Britain^ His remarks are highly intelligent, and
prove him to be one of the first to appreciate the
value of coal, and to foresee the consequences which
must some time result firom its failure. This event
he rather prematurely apprehended; but in those
days, when no statistics had been collected, and a
geological map was unthought of, accurate notions

2 The Coal Question.

were not to be expected. Still, lis views on this
subject may be read with profit, even at the present
day.

Sir John Sinclair, in his great " Statistical Account
of Scotland,"* * took a most enlightened view of the
importance of coal ; and, in noticing the Fifeshire
coal-field, expressed considerable fears as to a future
exhaustion of our mines. He correctly compared
the limited and invariable extent of a coal-field
with the ever-growing nature of the consumption
of coal.

In 1812 Eobert Bald, another Scotch writer, in
his very intelligent "General View of the Coal
Trade of Scotland," showed most clearly how evenly
and rapidly a consumption, growing in a "quick,
increasing series,"^ must overcome a fixed store,
however large. Even if the Grampian mountains,
he said,' were composed of coal, we would ultimately
bring down their summits, and make them level with
the vales.

In later years, the esteemed geologist Dr. Buck-
land most prominently and earnestly brought this
subject before the public, both in his evidence before
the Parliamentary Committees of 1830 and 1835,
and in his celebrated " Bridgewater Treatise." * On

1 Vol. xii. p. 547. ^ p, 94 3 p, 97,

* See also his Address to the Geological Society, Feb. 19th, 1841,
p. 41.

Opinions of Previous Writers. 3

every suitable occasion he implored the country

to allow no waste of an article so invaluable as

coal.

Many geologists, and other writers, without fully

comprehending the subject, have made so-called
estimates of the duration of the Newcastie coal-
field. Half a century ago this field was so much
the most important and weU known, that it took
the whole attention of English writers. The great
fields of South Wales and Scotiand, in fact, were
scarcely opened. But those who did not dream of
the whole coal-fields of Great Britain being capable
of exhaustion, were early struck by the progressive
failure of the celebrated Newcastle seams. Those
concerned in the coal trade know for how many
years each colliery is considered good ; and perhaps,
like George Stephenson in early youth, have had
their homes more than once moved and broken up
by the working out of a colliery.^ It is not possible
for such men to shut their eyes altogether to the
facts. ,

I give, on the following page, a tabular summary
of the chief estimates of the duration of the New-'
castle field.

^ Smiles' Engineers, vol. iii. pp. 18, 22.

B 2

ITie Coal Question.

Ettimai€$ ofUuDmnstitm of tt< Xarikmrnbtwlamd amd Durham Coal-Fidd.

Amborof Eiti-
mate.

Date

olEsxi-

Bste.

Sapprted Am of

imvorkcd

Square Mfler

Estimated
AmoantofCoaL

M;11k<i»crTaii&

Aaiamed Annual

Comnmption of

Coal.

Tona.

Dnntion

of
Supply.

Tears.

MacNab>. .

1792

300

—

360

Bailev*. . .

1601

—

1,866,200

200

Thomson' . .

1814

—

5^75

3^700,000

1000

Bakewell* . .

—

350

Hoe^ Taylor*

1830

732

6.046

3,500,000

1727

Backland'

1830

" —

—

400

Greenwell^ .

1S46

—

10,000,000

331

T.Y. Hall* .

1854

750

5,122

14,000,000

365

E.Hiil1» . .

1864

685

7,226

16,001,125

450

^ Treatise on the Coal Trade, quoted in Appendix to J. Williams'
Histoiy of the Mineral Kingdom : Edinburgh, 1810, toL iL p. 267.

' Edinburgh Review, voL cxL p. 84, note. This estimate, however,
seems to refer to Durham only, and to a later year than 1801. See
John Bailey, " Creneral View of the Agriculture of the County of
Durham," 1810, p. 28.

3 Annals of Philosophy, December, 1814.

^ Introduction to Creology, p. 192.

5 Keport on Coal Trade, 1830, p. 77. Ediinburgh Beview, yoL IL
p. 190. M*Culloch's Dictionary, art. Codl,

« Keport on Coal Trade, 1830.

7 and 8 T. Y. Hall. Transactions of the North of England Institute
of Mining Engineers, 1854. Fordyce, History of Coal, Coke, and
Coal-Fields : Newcastle, 1860, p. 32.

» The Coal-Fields of Great Britain, by Edward Hull, B. A. 2d Ed.
p. 161. (Stanford.)

Opinions of Pluvious Writers. 5

Suffice it to remark, coneeming these estimates,
that the amounts of coal supposed to exist in the
Newcastle field are much more accordant than the
conclusions as to the probable duration of the
supply. The reason, of course is, that the annual
consumption is a rapidly-growing quantity; and it
is a most short-sighted proceeding to argue as if it
were constant. These so-called estimates of dura-
tion are no such thing^ hut only compendious state-
ments how mjony times the coal existing in the earth
exceeds the quantity then annvxilly drawn.

The apparent accordance of these writers often
arises, too, from the compensation of errors. Some
of them assimied, most wrongly, that the known
seams extended continuously over the whole area
of the field ; they did not allow for the less exten-
sion of the higher seams, a point we shall have
to consider; and then again, even Dr. Buckland,
in accordance with the prevalent opinion of those
times, did not suppose that any coal existed imder
the magnesian limestone strata at the southern
angle of the Newcastle field. In Mr. Hull's esti-
mate, however, allowance is made for all hidden
coal likely to exist. He takes 460 square miles as
the area of the open coal measures, and 225 square
miles as the available area covered by newer
geological formations.

6 The Coal Question.

Some writers, without going into numerical
details, have explained very clearly the bearings
of this question. John Holland, for instance, the
author of an excellent anonymous work on coal,
has made very sound remarks upon the probable
duration of our coal. "While," he says,^ "it is
manifestly inconclusive to estimate according to
present demand the consumption of coals for cen-
turies to come, and still more so to assign any
specific condition of society to such a remote period,
we are warranted, in the first place, in assuming
that the demand for this species of fuel will not
diminish, but increase, with every imaginable condi-
tion of the progress of society ; and, secondly, we
have before us the undoubted fact, that our mines
are not inexhaustible. In addition to this, there is
the most direct evidence to show how far some of
the most valuable beds in the northern coal-fields
have been worked out already ; at the same time,
that tolerably satisfactory calculations have been
made as to the quantity remaining unwrought''

Mr. T. Sop with, in 1844, in an essay^ on the
"National Importance of Preserving Mining Re-
cords,'' made the following very excellent remarks :
" The opinion that our stores of coal are all but in-
exhaustible rests wholly on assumed data, and not

* A History and Description of Fossil Fuel : London, 1835, chap. xxiv.

Opinions of Previous Writers. 7

upon an accurate and detailed statistical account,
such as alone would warrant a confident opinion.
This question will, ere long, become a subject of
serious concern, unless some measures are taken to
found our calculations on a soUd basis. It is an
easy matter to assume that a considerable thickness
of available coal extends over hundreds of square
miles ; but the different opinions formed by men of
the highest respectability and talent, strongly prove
how meagre and imsatisfactory are the only data on
which these estimates are founded. It is not, how-
ever, the mere quantity of coal that is to be con-
sidered. Especial regard must be had to its quality,
depth, thickness, extent, and position. Many of the
inferior seams can only be worked in conjunction
with those which, by their superior quality, repay
the expense of working them at depths varying
from 300 to 600 yards ; and it may readily be con-
ceived, that inferior coal only could not be profitably
raised from pits equal in depth to three or four
times the height of St. PauFs Cathedral, unless the
price of such inferior coal was raised to more than
the present price of the best coal. ... It is not the
exhaustion of mines, but the period at which they
can be profitably worked, that merits earnest and
immediate attention.^' *

^ Quoted in the English Cyclopaedia. Art. Coal Trade.

8 The Coal Question.

Of statistical writers, Mr. M^Culloch has cha-
racterised the notions of the exhaustibility of our
coal mines as utteriy futile, both in his "Dic-
tionary of Conunerce/' article Coalj and in his
statistical " Account of the British Empire/' ' For
his views, however, the reader may refer to works
so well known and accessible.

Mr. Waterston, in his "Cyclopaedia of Com-
merce," * has treated the question with more caution,
but has erroneously supposed that modes of econo-
mising coal would compensate the evil of the in-
creasing cost.

The progress of the Geological Survey, and the
establishment of a Mining Record Office,' have
placed this question upon a new footing ; and when,
in 1860, public attention was drawn to the subject,
by the warm debates on the French Treaty, Mr.
Edward Hull, of the Geological Survey, was induced
to prepare a concise description of our coal-fields,
comprehending an estimate of their total contents.
The latest views of the same geologist have been
given in an excellent paper on the coal-fields,
forming the first article of the new Jov/imal of
Science, for Januaiy, 1864.

Referring the reader, for all geological details, to

* Fourth Edition, vol i. p. f)00. '^ 1847, p. 163.

^ As suggested by Mr. Sopwith at the British Association in 1838.

Opinions of Previous Writers.

Mr. Hull's very useful works, and leaving over for
discussion some points of his calculations, I will
now state his general results. The following table
gives Mr. Hull's estimate of the probable contents of
each of our chief coal-fields : — *

Coal-field.

Area of open Coal
Measures.

Area covered by
newer formations.

Total Coal to depth
of 4,000 feet.

Bqnare miles.

Square Miles.

Millions of T<»ns.

^nglesea . . .

^-^

Bristol & Somerset

105

2,488

Coalbrookdale . .

—

Cumberland. . .

—

Denbighshire . .

902

Derby and York .

760

400

16,800

Newcastle . . .

460

225

7,270

Flintshire . . .

(?)

Forest of Dean . .

—

561

Forest of Wyre . .

—

Lancashire . . .

217

4,510

Leicestershire . .

450

North Strfifford . .

2,237

South Stafford . .

—

973 ;

Shrewsbury . . .

—

* 1

South Wales . .

906

16,000

Warwickshire , .

107

2,184

! Scotland ....

1,720

25,323

Tot4»lH ....

4,499

932

79,84a

^ Coal-Fields of Great Britiiin, p. 187.
* Inconsiderable amounts.

n:--

. iiuU irivr-- his esti-

' •• *\'T^-F-'.lh.

Xniiilier of
1 C-jllirries,
ISGl.

...IHJ

11.»»<1,<HH)

' 424

., HM*

34,(>3o,?S4

84S

". ;i4

£o,«;>43,«XX')

i,ir>s

.-.. ,M-

\X2\nS96

516

\ic\tU4

iJ.s

■^ •

v-.<l7,M:i4

2,1*74

- sr.niato in 1864, of the

. .'.iM:^, oxceods by only au

N ,st ima tos m 1860 and

...iitiiv of 8;U44.000,OOO

.^I'.vonient basis for dis-

'.•.i.iv 1)C said latiT t»n, as

v>..'iiptit>ns. As ]Mi'. Hull

. vi-aotical acquaintance

.•.\' of tlie ]\IidLind cual-

, .; out tlie Geological

Nip. ;i:i

Opinions of Previous Writers. 1 1

Survey, and has at his command all the published
results of the survey, the experience of his coadjutors,
and the writings of previous geologists, his estimate
must certainly be accepted for the present

But whether this estimate be accurate or not, it
wiQ appear that the exact fixed amount of coal exist-
ing is a less-important point in this question than
the rate at which our consumption increases, and the
natural laws which govern that consumption. The
question is mainly one of statistical science, and it
is only as such that I venture to have anything to
do with it.

Mr. Hull, indeed, has not confined himself to the
geological side of the question, and his remarks
"upon the statistical bearings of his estimate must
3iot be passed over, though they are far from having
"the same weight as hds geological writings. Through-
out his work, he compares the contents of each coal-
ifield with the present annual quantity of coal
drawn from it, and his remarks on the condition of
"the several fields are interesting and significant.
Ihe present generation, he thinks, may see the
^nd of the Flintshire coal-field, which was largely
A?^orked in the days of shallow pits, and contains
little more than twenty millions of tons for future
supply* The Coalbrookdale coal-field, where the

^ Jmvnial of Science^ No. I. p. 29.

ti The Gj^ ^^if*^ioiK

pCf^sHmz misAt of imn TmunilTii*uiE& wii& £csc €ste-

^iiaiL of r& ^ssreec. ami h on. une viecse- irf' eld age.

^iff!pqpaifA hasT^ bef^t Q&ea neekiesslx ^mubiissredL'^ ^

It i<i troe itait tfae gr^air Sixzjdt WaLes and Scotch
eoal bdi^nKi ermtsni some &*>asaj>i^ <i^ times thdr
yresient axmaal td^ of c^tikL Bat it ^ obvioiis they
will have, in foture reais, to eompensate the fdliiig
rj^ in all the smaller and older fields, as well as to
bear their own inereased local demand. Coal wiU
be got where it can most cheaply and easily be got,
and the exhanstion of one field will only throw a
new rlemand upon fresher fields. This is a process
alrea/ly extenidvely going on.

'^The HUpply of coal in the Sonth Staffordshire
iliHtriet,^ «ay» Mr. William Mathews,* " has seriously
ff%]]m off of late years* and has become quite in-
ft/1f/jtjatc to meet the demand occasioned by the
ilwfjlopmcnt of its other manufacturing resources.
W(5 arc, therefore, obliged to lean somewhat on the

' $tmi/nml of Hcunce, p. 3().

• TmnH, of 1-Im« Nortli of England Institute of Mining Engineers,
vol. %. |i. 74. (IH«2.;

Opinions of Previous Writers, 13

aids which the produce of the northern coal-fields
opens up to us ; and if, by any chance, the resources
we now enjoy, from that and other districts in
England, . should be withheld, we should feel the
inconvenience of being deprived of such resources
very sensibly indeed"

The same process is taking place, by aid of rail-
ways, in many shallow coal districts, and it might
proceed until the whole country was mainly depen-
dent on one or two of the greatest coal basins. We
ought, therefore, to compare the total supply within
the kingdom with the total probable demand, pay-
ing little or no regard to present local circumstances
of demand or supply.

Mr. Hull has made such a comparison. He com-
j)ared the 79,843 millions of tons of his first esti-
3nate* with the 72 million tons of coal consumed
in 1859, and deduced that, at the same rate of con-
sumption, the supply would last 1,100 years.

" Yet we have no right,'' he very truly remarked,
"^ to assume that such will be the actual duration ;
for the history of coal mining during the last half-
century has been one of rapid advance.'' Our con-
sumption, in short, had about doubled itself since
1840 ; and, supposing it to continue doubling every

•* Coal-Fields of Great Britain, 2d Ed. p. 236.

14 The Coal Question.

twenty years> our ** total available supply would 1^>®
exhausted before the lapse of the year 2034/' *

"If we had reason,'' he continues,* "to expe^^^*
that the increase of future years was to progress
the same ratio, we might well tremble for the
suit ; for that would be nothing less than the utt^^
exhaustion of our coal-fields, with its concomiteU^^^

influence upon our population, our commerce, 9X^
national prosperity, in the short period of \^
years ! "

No sooner has Mr. Hull reached this truly alam^^ ^
ing result than he recoils from it. " But are we,
he says, " really to expect so rapid a drain in futur^^^^
years? I think not" Economy will reduce our
consumption, the burning waste-heaps of coal will
be put a stop to ; America will relieve us £rom the
world-wide demand for our coal, and will eventually
furnish even this country with as much as we want
Such are some of the fallacious notions with which
Mr. Hull, in common with many others, seeks to
avoid an unwelcome conclusion. More lately, he
has said :^ " Notwithstanding these facts, however,
it would be rash to assume that the experience of
the past is to be a criterion of the future. We
neither wish for, nor expect, an increase during the

^ The calculation is not strictly correct. ' P. 237.

^ JourncU of Science, No, I. p. 35.

Opinions of Previous Writers. 1 5

ainder of the second half of this century, at all

px*o3)ortionate to that of the earlier half; and this
\r±^-\^ is borne out by some of the later returns.
Sojcx:ie of our coal-fields, as has been shown, have
passed their meridian, and, having expended their
sfcx-^ jigth, are verging to decay. Others have attained
tlx^ij maximum, or nearly so; this, indeed, is the
ca*^^ with the majority. The younger coal-fields
^^^"iU have much of their strength absorbed in com-
P^^»=i-^ting for the falling off of the older ; so that,
^^^ ^ few years, the whole of our coal-producing
dt^-fc^-icts will reach a stage of activity beyond which
*^^3^ cannot advance, but around which they may
^^<^iJJate. Entertaining these views, I am inclined
^ X^lace the possible maximum of production at
^^*^ millions of tons a year; and yet it has been
^^^^^ vvn that, even with^this enormous * output,' there

•

IS ^=^ '•^.ough coal to last for eight centuries.''

le reader wiU easily see, in the course of oui

i^^^xxiry, how utterly mistaken is Mr. Hull, in sup-

P^^xxig our production of coal to be limited to

^ ^ millions. It has already reached 86 millions,

"^^^Ixout counting the waste of slack coal (several

^"'^^ions more), and is yet advancing by great

etxrxdes. And Mr. Hull seems unaware that a sudden

ch'ec^ to the expansion of our demand would he

tUe i;ery manifestation of exhaustion we dread. It

Hi The Coal Que^stion-.

would at once bring on us the lising price, the
transference of industry, and the general reverse of
prosperity, which I hope not to witness in my days.
And the eight centuries of stationary existence he
promises us would be little set off against a nearer
prospect so critical and alarming.

Facts, however, prove the hastiness of Mr. Hull's
views. The number of collieries is rapidly in-
creasing, up to the v(»ry last accoimts (1863); and
new collieries being mostly larger, deeper works
than the old ones laid in, we may conclude that coal
owners, at least, are confident of pushing the pro-
duction for many years to come.

The remarks of Sir W. Armstrong on this subject,
in his Address to the British Association at New-
castle, in 1863, are so excellent, that I quote them
at length : — " The phase of the earth's existence,
suitable for the extensive formation of coal, appears
to have passed away for ever ; but the quantity of
that invaluable mineral which has been stored up
throughout the globe for our benefit is sutiicient (if
used discreetly) to serve the purposes of the human
race for many thousands of years. In fact, the
entire quantity of coal may be considered as practi-
cally inexhaustible.

" Turning, however, to our own particular country,
and contemplating the rate at which we are ex-

Opinions of Previous Writers. 1 7

pending those seams of coal which yield the best
quality of fuel and can be worked at the least
expense, we shall find much cause for anxiety.
The greatness of England much depends upon the
superiority of her coal, in cheapness and quality,
over that of other nations; but we have already
drawn, from our choicest mines, a far larger quantity
of coal than has been raised in all other parts of the
world put together; and the time is not remote
when we shall have to encounter the disadvantages
of increased cost of tvorking and diminished value
of produce.

"Estimates have been made, at various periods,
of the time which would be required to produce
complete exhaustion of all the accessible coal in the
British Islands. The estimates are certainly dis-
cordant ; but the discrepancies arise, not from any
important disagreement as tx> the avaUable quaoitity
of coal, but from the enormous difference in the rate
of consumption at the various dates when the esti-
mates were made, and also from the different views
which have been entertained as to the probable
increase of consumption in future years. The quan-
tity of coal yearly worked from British mines has
been almost trebled during the last twenty years,
and has probably increased tenfold since the com-
mencement of the present century; but as this

18 The Coal Question.

increase has taken place pending the introduction
of steam navigation and railway transit^ and under
exceptional conditions of maniifacturmg develop-
ment, it would be too much to assume that it will
continue to advance with equal rapidity.

"The statistics collected by Mr. Hunt, of the
Mining Record Ofl&ce, show, that at the end of
1861, the quantity of coal raised in the United
Kingdom had reached the enormous total of 86
millions of tons^* and that the average annual
increase in the eight preceding years amounted to
2f millions of tons.

" Let us iaquire, then, what will be the duration
of our coal-fields if this more moderate rate of
increase be maintained. By combining the known
thickness of the various workable seams of coal, and
•computing the area of the surface under which they
lie, it is easy to arrive at an estimate of the total
quantity comprised in our coal-bearing strata.
Assuming 4,000 feet as the greatest depth at which
it will ever be possible to carry on mining opera-
tions, and rejecting all seams of less than two feet
in thickness, the entire quantity of available coal
existing in these islands has been calculated to
amount to about 80,000 millions of tons, which, at
iJie present rate of consumption, would be exhausted

^ Including waste ?

Opinions of Previous Writers. 19

in 930 years ; but with a continued yearly increase
of 2i millions of tons would only last 212 years.

" It is clear that, long before complete exhaustion
takes place, England will have ceased to be a coal-
producing country on an extensive scale. Other
nations, and especially the United States of America,
which possess coal-fields thirty-seven times more
extensive than ours, wiU then be working more
accessible beds at a smaller cost, and will be able to
displace the English coal from every market. The
question is, not how long our coal wiU endure
before absolute exhaustion is effected, but how long
wiU those particular coal-seams last which yield
coal of a quality and at a price to enable this
country to maintain her present supremacy in
manufacturing industry. So far as this particular
district is concerned, it is generally admitted that
200 years will be sufficient to exhaust the principal
seams, even at the present rate of working. If
the production should continue to increase as it is
now doing, the duration of those seams will not
reach half that period. How the case may stand in
other coal mining districts, I have not the means of
ascertaining ; but, as the best and most accessible
coal wiU always be worked in preference to any
other, I fear the same rapid exhaustion of our most
valuable seams is everywhere taking place/'

20 The Coal Question.

With almost every part of this statement I can
concur, except the calculation by a fixed annual
increase of consumption, which I shall show to be
contrary to the principles of the subject, and not to
reach the whole trutL

Dr. Percy, the eminent metallurgist of the School
of Mines, is one whose opinions will bear great
weight on this subject, and in several passages of
his new treatises on Metallurgy, he has expressed
his misgivings. Our coal, he says^ "is not only
being consumed at a prodigious rate at home, but is
being largely exported ; and the question as to the
probable duration of our coal-fields has, of late, been
discussed with reasonable anxiety. In 1862 we
raised 84,000,000 tons of coal, and the demand con-
tinually increases. Hitherto, owing to the abun-
dance of our mineral fuel, we have been, and we
Btill are, comparatively regardless of economy in its
consumption. The time has now arrived when
necessity will compel us to act differently, both in
our manufactories and in our households."

I conclude this chapter with the following passage
from the work of two eminent geologists, who
wrote, however, when the question was not as
urgent as at present : —

"The manufacturing industry of this island,
colossal as is the fabric which it has raised, rests

Opinions of Previous Writers. 21

principally on no other base than our fortunate
position with regard to the rocks of this series.
Should our coal-mines ever be exhausted it would
melt away at once, and it need not be said that the
eflfect produced on private and domestic comfort
would be equally fatal with the diminution of
public wealth; we should lose many of the ad^
vantages of our high civilization, and much of our
cultivated grounds must be again shaded with
forests to aflford fuel to a remnant of our present
population. That there is a progressive tendency
to approach this limit is certain ; but ages may yet
pass before it is felt very sensibly, and, when it does
approach, the increasing difl&culty and expense of
working the mines of coal will operate, by succes-
sive and gradual checks against its consumption,
through a long period, so that the transition may
not be very violent ; our manufacturers would first
feel the shock; the excess of population supported
by them would cease to be called into existence, as
the demand for their labour ceased; the cultivation
of poor lands would become less profitable, and
their conversion into forests more so." *

^ Conybeare and Phillips, Outlines of Geology, pp. 324, 325.

22 The Coal Question.

CHAPTEE 11.

GEOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF THE QUESTION.

I CANNOT pretend to do more, as regards the geo-
logical aspects of this question, than give some
brief account of the way in which geologists argue
concerning it. At the most I must only try to
point out what is clear and easy, and what is yet
involved in doubt.

In the first place, when we know the extent and
thickness of a coal seam we easily calculate its con-
tents by weight. Coal varies in specific gravity,
from about 1.25 to 1.33, or is from one and a quarter
to one and a third times as heavy as an equal bulk
of water. A cubic yard of solid coal therefore
weighs from 2,103 lbs. to 2,243 lbs. And since
2,240 lbs. make one ton, it is quite exact enough
to say that a cubic yard is a ton in weight.

Supposing a seam, then, to be exactly a yard
thick, an acre of it wiU contain 4,840 tons of coal,
and a square mile 3,097,600 tons. We may most
I simply say, in round nimibers, that a coal seam gives

Geological Aspects of the Question. ' 23

a million tons of coal per foot thick per square
mile. ^K^

Our task is now reduced to that of defining the
area and thickness of the coal seams of any given
coal district. The manner, however, in wMch the
seams have been formed and disposed in the crust
of the earth gives rise to several difficulties.

1. The seams are of veiy different thickness and
quality, some workable and some unworkable ; we
axe not certain how many we may count upon.

2. The area of the seams in a district is not
uniform, some having been much more denuded
or swept away by aqueous agency than others.

3. Coal seams are more or less broken up by
faults and hitches, and a greater or less quantity of
coal must be sacrificed to the necessities of mining.

4. Coal seams on one side often sink to unex-
plored depths, and we are uncertain how far we can
follow them. There are reasons, too, for supposing
that coal measures may exist where they have never
yet been reached.

•The first question, of the thickness of workable
seams, will be more fitly discussed in the next
chapter. The fact is sufl&cient here, that under the
present prices of coal, seams of less than eighteen
or twenty-four inches do not repay the cost of
working.

24 Tlie Coal Question.

We have next to consider the superficial extent
of coal seams. It is obvious that so far as seams
lie one above the other co-extensively, we may
lump them together in our estimate. Thus, in the
Newcastle field, there are ten seams of more than
two feet thickness, and in workable condition. Of
these the High main and Low main coal seams
are each six feet thick, and the intermediate Ben-
sham seam is nearly three feet. Adding in the
seven other less valuable seams, we have a total
thickness of coal of thirty-six feet. As the area of
the field, according to Mr. Hull, is 460 square miles,
we might be inclined to reckon the total contents
according to the rule at 460 x 36 millions of tons,
or 16,560 millions. But we should here commit a
considerable error, because the seams are not co-
extensive. The quantity assumed by Mr. Hull,
"corrected for denudation,'^ is only 8,548 millions
of tons.

The origin of the difi'erence amounting to nearly
a half is very easily explained, though overlooked
by many early and some late estimators. It arises
from the very large portions of the upper seams
that have been swept away or denuded during geo-
logical ages. The coal measures consist of many
alternated beds of sand, mud, coal, and ironstone,
deposited during a long period of time in estuaries.

Geological Aspects of the Question. 25

great swamps, fresh-water lakes, deltas, or flat
shores, which gradually sank as the beds were
added. As first deposited, the strata must have
been nearly level, but they are seldom so now.
They lie at every angle from the horizontal to the
vertical Nowhere have we such good opportuni-
ties as in our coal mines of observing the upraisals,
the downfalls, the dislocations, contortions, and
denudations which rocks have suffered. The Scotch
coal-fields must, at one time, have formed a nearly
continuous and level sheet, but are now broken up
into many separate irregular basins, and the seams
are sometimes, as in the Mid-Lothian mines, turned
up quite vertically on their edge. In the French
fields the strata are sometimes folded in and out in
a highly complicated and troublesome manner.

In general the coal measures have only been
tilted up on one side in sloping plains, or bent iuto
gentle curves and basin-like depressions. These
movements could not take place without destroying
the continuity of the strata ; for though rocks seem
to us soUd and immovable, they are in comparison
with volcanic forces but as thin and incoherent
crusts. Accordingly, the strata are transversed in
every direction by cracks, fissures, faults, where the
whole mass of strata many thousand feet thick has
been cloven through, one side comparatively to the

26 The Coal Question.

other being thrown up. The great ninety fathom
dyke, for instance, which crosses the Newcastle field,
in a somewhat curved line to the north of the River
Tyne, has caused the downthrow of the strata on the
south side to the depth of 540 feet, and has had
curious influences upon the progress of the English
coal trade. On the whole, the Newcastle field is
one of the least disturbed, and presents few great
difficulties to the miner.

The Lancashire field is more troubled. The
new map by Mr. Hull, a complete copy of which
may be seen in the Museum of Practical Geology,
represents it as scored and broken by a number
of cracks, small and great, interlacing in a very
complex manner. In short, a sheet of coal measures,
to use Dr. Buckland's expression, is like a sheet of
ice broken into numerous irregular pieces, but
soldered together again without any bit being
wholly lost.

Now, when all these disturbances took place, the
surface of the ground must have been affected as
well as the underground strata. We might expect
to find on the north side of the ninety fathom dyke
at Newcastle, a perpendicular rocky cliff* of corre-
sponding height. But no such thing is known on
any of the coal-fields. The surface of our English
coal-fields is either quite flat, or only swelliug in

Geological Aspects of the Question. 27

one direction into round topped hills, showing no
conformity to the underground disturbances. We
cannot mistake the reason. While earthquakes and
intrusions of lava were breaking up the strata,
winds and rains and streams, or perhaps the tides
of a shallow sea coast, or estuary, were wearing
away all prominences, and carrying off great masses
of strata. It has been shown, for instance, by
Dr. Eamsay, that the whole body of the coal mea-
sures between the South Wales field and that of the
Forest of Dean, has been swept away, and "the
missing portion, equal to mountains in mass, is con-
jecturally restored in one of the earlier sections of
the Geological Survey.

During this proceas the upper strate of course
would be soonest carried off. And when the strata
are thrown up on one side into an inclined plane,
we find the seams of coal more and more cut away
as they are nearer the surface. Thus the coal
measures, as they usually appear to us, successively
crop up to the surface, like the layers of a piece of
wood that has been planed off obliquely to its grain.

Thus it happens that the High main seam of coal
at Newcastle is quite near the surface, and of com-
paratively limited extent; while the lower seams
crop up to the surface at successively greater dis-
tances firom the centre of the field, and the lowest

, .:.UL in e.^rln:i:ing the
■^ \\ L- find it, we ought to
;«• imc uf out-crop of each
:■ Ii ii is cut by the surface of
. . wv slunikl measure separately
. .iin, aiul multiply each area by
•;ir .i\mi. On many of the maps
. ;! sm\vv the out crop of the seams
i:iill\ III sorios of devious curv^es,
-. ...»; hvuv and there by the faults.

•

w.iu' ilui; any poi'son has yet esti-

. ., paiau^lv. The subject has hardly

. ' :uv vi\ a?i Yot, and ]\Ir. Hull arrives

■ii; uviiiU bv what he calls a "cor-

. .:vLuu>ii." or an allowance for the

u' vi[»jvr strata worn away in the

ll^>\\ ho estimates this "correc-

ivMiiLiiii;- to half, I do not know.

.::ii v»t' vval ascertained by multiply-

. .• ■. lu- iliioknoss of a soam must not

. ..■.iu»uui available. Some part of a

s 'loaou up, burn:, or spoiled by the

X XV wUuli tvavci^o i:. Another con-

.. \ .. \v,i> v.v^: u<;;:i'. :,^ cx:r;;-.: more

Geological Aspects of the Question. • 29

than four-tenths of the coal in a seam, when work-
ing at a greater depth than 100 fathoms; the rest
was left in the form of thick pillars to keep the
roof £:om falling in. »The free use of timber to
support the roof, and the introduction of long-wall,
and panel working, has allowed the extraction of
nearly all the coal in favourable positions. Still,
hi xxnfavourable. circumstances, the highest mining
skill will probably be unable to get the whole coal,
3^<i besides this it is always necessary to leave
thick barriers of coal around the limits of the
P^^perty in order to shut out the water, or the foul
^^^ of neighbouring works. A clause to this eflfect
IS al-vrays introduced into a mining lease, and if not
^ ^^xrved, the mine may easily become unworkable.
*<> these barriers and the wasted pillars of coal,
^^ €tdd the small coal burnt at the pit mouth, or
coxxs^i^uj^^ in the ventilating furnaces and engines,
^^ ^annot estimate the coal available for commerce
^•^^ore than two thirds of that which the con-
^^^^"^oiis seams would contain. Accordingly, Mr.
*^^ll allows one third for waste.

-*^lxe contents of a coal-field may then be esti-

^^"ted with some certainty, provided that the

*^^^Ua.daries of the seams on every side be known.

T-uis is the case in a perfect coal basin like that of

tT^^ Porest of Dean. In the case of fields abutting

It M «Bif wkK caii mam^ Mk iaum bejoiid
«v Ui»li%i «■ ^ ■i^ «• K Ae Twfcaliiro
&U,dHK««Me m ifcwi^fc — artioi*y as to the
^walitr of sndbUe cmL IW nwi>'— here fa&-
e. Kitthr. iamjm- tmnf the
he mf^meJ fe dly mmd extemi
under w»re modern /frmatiwm f Stewm^Sfy, Mow
far etm we ftjQom them with fr^lt, ttmiderimg the
growing omU and dijfiad^ ^fd^f muming ?

hmviagthe meaoA qnestioa lor disaisBioii in tbe
next diaptcs; ibete is bat little that eu be said
ooDcerntAg the fint.

If tile imervx of geology had no other claims apon
OUT flttentimi it would repay all the labour ^>eiit
upon it, many times over, by showing where cflal
may reaw>nably he looked for. By fixing the geo-
logi(;al (lat« cif each rock, it points ont in what
iiitfjrval the coal measures must appear, if they
appear at all. One third of the whole kingdom, it
ijt mvid, is CXI) lulled from the search by being formed

Geological Aspects of the Question. 31

of rocks older than tlie coal-bearing age. On the
other hand, there are large areas of country under
"which coal may reasonably be expected to occur,
although therer are no signs of it at the surface ;
and geology may enable us even to fathom the
tliickness of overlying rocks and teU with some
certainty the depth at which coal will probalJy
occur, if at all.^

JkTr. Hull includes in his estimate 932 square

miles of such country. Of these 225 square miles

occux at the south-east comer of the Durham field,

wliere the coal measures dip under the Magnesian

Liinestone and the New Ked Sandstone. Another

40 O square miles occur similarly on the eastward

dip of the great Yorkshire and Derbyshire field.

Vrrral and other parts of the Cheshire New Ked

Sandstone are probably underlain by bands or sheets

of coal measures, connecting the Flintshire and

Denbighshire fields with the great Lancashire field.

The North and South Stafford, Warwick, Coal-

\)Xookdale, and Forest of Wyre fields are more or

Ifiss completely connected. On the other sides the

fields are definitely terminated by the appearance of

tli^ carboniferous or mountain limestone, that great

l^aseinent rock which in nearly every part of the

™gdom bears the coal measures.

* E. Hull, British Association, 1854, Report, p. 87.

/7/t' Coal QtK'Stion.

-. <[uk\jn iroal-fiekls are continuous with

A woikuJ, there can be little or no doubt

:* ;r .xistuiiuc. But while thev can hardly

■\ Lur .'^uauLs than those already known, the

•iiay wry pusiiibly thin out if followed fax.

1 iiumv cases the overlvinir Permian and Xew

xuhl-^iDiie rocks may conidin so much water

\\. !1 U) such a thickness as to be quite im-

\ Imm.I of coal scams connecting the Durham

N..iL..tiirc lielils is of a more conjectural cha-

i lu ilh' country between these two fields

\l...iii .liiM lamest one, which is above the coal,

:.i..il\ ii[KMi the. millstone grit and carboni-

iiiii.aoiu^ below the coal. As there is no

I ..'.il uiea.^ures at the junction, coal cannot

I (1 ilu^ iK)int. If it ever existed in the

V ' u iiiu.-.i liave been swept away before the

.!i. I'l luiiau or Magnesian Limestone.

.... I lieu, the rectangular direction in which

ckU^k* of the Yorkshire coal, and the

W'^■■ oi lUe Dm'ham coal run under Per-

, u ^eeuis to be wholly a matter of un-

i.w I a I' tUe denudation, or absence of the

, ■, iiiav extend.

■ .' -iMe position of coal measures is
IX i.uei^us and wealden beds of Wilts,

I .!n

Geological Aspects of the Question. 33

Berks, Surrey, and Kent. In 1855, Mr. Godwin

A.iis"fcen published a remarkable argument, showng

tliat a range of rocks, an underground ridge of

moimtains, as it were, probably stretched from the

M^endip Hills to the Ardennes in Belgium ; and " wc

Wve strong d priori reasons for supposing that the

course of a band of coal measures coincides with,

^d may. some day be reached, along the line of

*Iie valley of the Thames, whilst some of the deeper-

seated coal, as well as certain overlying and limited

"^^ins, may occur along and beneath some of the

^^^^tudinal folds of the Wealden denudation." His

^^nctions were partially verified immediately after

f^'^blication, by the actual discovery of old rocks in

"^^ boring of wells at Kentish Town and Harwich.

^"fc Mr. Whitaker, to whose able memoir^ I am

^^^^bted, remarks on the uncertainty of such

^^ductions concerning coal. " It must not be

^^Pposed that because there is almost a certainty

^^ there being a ridge of. old rocks at some depth

v^low the surface along part of the valley of the

^^ames, and a likelihood of some of those old rocks

wlonging to the coal Tneasures^ therefore coal will

^ found at a workable depth in parts of the London

*^istrict; for the alternations of sandstone, shale,

^ The Geology of Parts of Middlesex, Hertfordshire, &c. by William
Wt»ker, B.A. F.G.S. 1864, p. 107. (Geological Survey.)

34 \ The Coal Question.

&c., that so generally contain workable beds of coal,
and are therefore known as the ' coal measures^* are
sometimes almost without that mineral'^
. In short, all that is shown is a hare possibility of
Jinding coal. But as it is uncertain . whether the
coal measures are there at all — ^whether,- if ther^
they contain good coal — and if so, whether they
are within workable depth and circumstances, it
must still be held very unlikely that coal ever will
be got in this tract

And on the principle that "a bird in the hand
is worth two in the bush," we should avoid putting
too much reliance on possible coal-fields. ^ Their
existence is doubtful — ^they cannot well contain
better coal than that we now enjoy, and may
contain much worse, and they are very probably
at depths, and in conditions, where they are com-
merciaUy out of the question, as regards competi-
tion with foreign coals. There is plenty of coal
known to exist out of our reach without resorting
to coal that may or may not exist, but is in any
case perhaps out of reach.

Here I may notice the differences of opinion that
have arisen concerning the amount of accessible coal
in the Great South Wales coal tract. For a long time
it, was considered an inexhaustible store, to which
we might have final recourse some centuries hence.

Geological Aspects of the Question. 35

Mr. H. H. Vivian, a great land and coal owner of

tTaat dkitricty memb^ of Parliament for Glaroorgan-

ahire, yet insists upon its being regarded in this

light During the discussions on the French Treaty

of Commeroe in 1860, some opposition having been

i^sdaed to the 11th clause, on the groimd that free

exportation of coals must accelerate the exhaustion

of our mines, Mr. Vivian roundly asserted that the

South Wales field alone would serve the whole con-

fi^Hnption of England for 500 years, and it would

sufitam its own present consumption for 5,000 years.

^'It was perfectly absurd," he said, "to talk of the

oxhaustion of coal in this country."

Now, when Mr. Hull came to estimate the amount
^^ available coal in this field, he found it to be
^^y 2,000 times its present yield, or two-fifths as
^uch as Mr. Vivian's estimate.

•Saving the accuracy of his statement then called

^ ^.^estion, Mr. Vivian published a small pamphlet

^^taming, in addition to a reprint of his speech,

^d of a lecture on coal, a brief critique on Mr.

Hull's calculations. "Mr. Hull," he says, *' takes

^^ total thickness of strata at 10,000 feet, con-

*^ing 84 feet of valuable coal ; he then deducts

for denudation 48,000 millions of tons; he next

deducts one half the remainder, or 24,000 millions

of tons for those seams which lie below 4,000 feet ;

The Coal Question,

&c., that so generally contain workn
and are therefore known as tlic * "
sometimes almost without that m.
. In short, all that is shown is n
finding coal. But as it is r
coal measures are there at ;« ■
they contain good coal — am*
are mthin workable di'|»iii ,■
must still be held v(^r\' im .
be got in this tract.

And on the prinr i [»!*.•
is worth two in thu i'u.-
too much reliance mh
existence is doul 't 1 1 1 • •
better coal tlian i
contain much wcr •.
at depths, and i . .

I., the Br^^ ^

oily arbitrary>
-- 11, however intx^^^
\uo. The secona

I .<!

JjJ

>> < .,

mercially out nl'
tion with funiL,-
known to exi;-i
to coal til at ...
case perha}>>
Here F in:
hav<i an>^cii <
in the (U* .
it wfis CM.. ."

we mi^fli:

to tact.

vuds and explains

.0 urge ? "I took ^

-. • after the most care>

\ had mainly in view tl^
wwjf from 50 feet on tb^
110 southern upcrop, an^
. Mio central upheave. J
» lich now, and ages hence,
\ Iv won. I considered the
. I a under which they would
r I ho ' Upper Vein,' to some
;.u'.\ and I concluded that T
ov i »us an average workable
^li' iiiva. I then took the

Geological Aspects of the Question. 37

produce at 40 per cent, less than the actual contents,

tliat is ^ say, I calculated the cubic yard at 1,500

tons instead of 1,613 tons, or 6*66 per cent, (less),

aJid I allowed one third, equal to 33*33 per cent, for

Waste, feiults, quantity already worked, &c., together

40 per cent. ; and upon these data I arrived at the

conclusion that South Wales could supply all England

for 500 years, and her own consumption for 5,000 ;

*o that I adhere in spite of the calculations which

Jktr. Hull has adduced"

iSow this sort of argument may be very satisfw-

toxy to Mr. Vivian^s own mind, and, in a ParUa-

'^^xitary debate, a confident assertion by a man of

l^oal knowledge and influence has a good deal of

^^^igH and rightly so. But will Mr. Vivian's views

^eax a moment's criticism? Would Mr. Vivian

^.ccept such an estimate from a witness before him

^li a Parliamentary Committee? Would he be

satisfied with taking the thickness of coal, " after

the most careful consideration, at 60 feet?'' Why,

^t^.t are the facts? Geologists of the highest

staixcliiig— Sir T. De La Beche and Sir W. E. Logan,

^^yr a long geological survey, most admirably con-

duct^j proved that the coal measures of South Wales

aie 10,000 or 12,000 feet thick, and contain altogether

84 feet of coal in seams of workable thickness, the

most of which lies near the base. Mr. Vivian

The Coal Question.

assumes, apparently, by nothing more than conjec-
ture, that 60 out of the 84 feet on an average may
!•«' lakrn as available over the whole area!

^Ir. Hull may have deducted too much for denu-
dation, and possibly too much for depth, but Mr.
Hull's is an estimate — Mr. Vivian's is no more than
a guess. And, of course, when Mr. Vivian asserts
that South Wales can supply all England for 500
years> he means at the present rate of consumptioii,
which is quite beside the question. The question i%
how long will South Wales supply us at the present
price with the present growing demand ?

Of the Cost of Coal Mining. 39

CHAPTER III.

OF THE COST OF COAL MINING,

The difl&culty and cost of winning and working
coal-mines, form an aspect of the question that
obviously contains the solution of the whole.

In a free industrial system, such as we are deve-
loping and assisting to spread, everything is a
question of cost We have heard of moral and phy-
sical impossibilities, but we ought to be aware that
*nere are also commercial impossibilities. We must
^^ in undertaking a work, not whether it can be
^^He, or is physically possible, but whether it will
P^y to do it — ^whether it is commercially possible.
J^ae Works of the two Brunels were, in a mechanical
P^Uit of view, at least as successful and wonderful
^ tlxose of the two Stephensons ; but, commercially
^^^Icing, they were disastrous failures, which no one
^^>Ud. have undertaken had the consequences been
^^^. Commerce and industry cannot be carried on
"^t "by gain — ^by a return exceeding the outlay.

Nov, IB **i#I-«wnii¥g, we must discriminate the
jkymal and oomnMrcial possibility. The second
pnsi^paaeB ^ fiist, but does not follow &om it
Bie questioii is a tvro-fold one : — Firstly, is it phy-
ricaDy poanble to drive oar eoal-mines to the depth
of 4,000. 5,000, or 6,000 feet ? and, secondly, is it
ecHumemally pos^ble when in other parts of the
world coal is yet being worked in the light of day ?
The very existence of Britain, as a great nation, is
bound up in these queationa

Now I apprehend that there is not the least
danger of our reaching any fixed limit of deep
mining, where phj-sical impossibility begins. In
mines already 2,000 or 2,500 feet deep, there is no
Bpecial difficulty felt in going deeper. But we must
consider the matter a little, because the Quarterly
lieview has confidently asserted that 2,500 feet is the
limit,' and Mr. Hull, after an express inquiry into
the matter, thinks that 4,000 may be taken as the
limit.' It has often been suggested that the increase
of t<:raperature of the earth's crust as we descend
itiU} it will prove an insuperable obstacle, and Mr.
Hull and others have been inclined to hold, that
kyijjjd (I di'pth of 4,000 or 5,000 feet the tempera-
ture will (entirely prevent further sinking.

I Vnl. ex, ].. ;

•' Coil-fieldB, &c. 2d ed. p. SUI

Of the Cost of Coal Mining.

The increase of temperature varies in different

^Daiues from one degree in 35 to one degree in 88 feet.

i!lie increase in the deep Monkwearmouth Pit was

^icie degree for 60 feet, but the observations of Mr.

Astleyin the sinking of the Dukinfield Deep Pit

stowed an average increase of one degree in 83 feel^

nearly the lowest rate known. I^ with Mr. Hull, we

take one degree in 70 feet as a safe average rate of .

^crease, we may easily form the following table,

fifcarting from the depth of 50 feet from the surface,

at livhich depth in this country an uniform tempera-

*iM^e of about 50"* Fahr. is found to exist.

Depth in
feet

Incream of

temi>eTstare

of rode.

Actual tem-
perature of
rock.

50**

1,000

14°

2,000

28°

78°

3,000

42°

92°

4,000

56^

106°

5,000

121°

Tlxe air in mines, independently of the rock, is

^^^^ warmer than at the surface, owing to its

^^ter density ; for just as in ascending a mountain

The Coal Qtiestion.

the baiometer falls and the air grows rare and col -
so in descending a mine the barometer rises and tb::^
air grows warmer. The barometer, roughly speaJ^
ing, varies about an inch for every 1,000 feet ccr
elevation, and the temperature about one degree fo_-
every 300 feet. On these data the following tabW
is roughly calculated : —

Depth in
feet

Height of
Barometer.

Increase of

temperatore of

air.

Actual tempe-
ratore or
air.

0
1,000
2,000
3,000
4,000
5,000

30-0
31-0
320
33-0
34-0
35-0

0°
3°

7°
10°
13°
17°

60°
63°
67°
60°
63°
67°

If air, then, of the temperature of 50"* at the
surface descend 5,000 feet, it will acquire the tem-
perature of 67". The rocks at that depth will have
the temperature of 121°, and will therefore warm the
air as it circulates through the mine up to their own
temperature. But Mr. Hull has fallen into a very
evident mistake in adding together the increments
of temperature of the air and rocks. He makes the

Of the Cost of Coal Mining. 43

"fccmperature, for instance, at a depth of 4,000 feet, to
e 120^-08 as follows : —

Invariable temperature of surface .... 50^.5

Inovase due to depth 56^.42

Increase due to density of air 13M6

Resulting temperature (sum) 120°.08

On the contrary, even at 5,000 feet deep, the tem-
erature will not exceed 121°, the temperatiire of
e rock, and at 4,000 feet it will not exceed 106^
t may be reduced, too, by plentiful ventilation, or
y letting out in the mine air compressed and
ooled at the surface, as is done in the new
cioal-cutting machines. Now, as men can work
«.t temperatures exceeding 100°, we are not likely
"to encounter the physical limit of sinking on this
etccount.

But the cost of sinking and working deep pits is
quite another matter. The growing temperature
Vf'iH enervate, if it does not stop the labourers ; * much
increased ventilation will be a matter of expense and
difficulty ; the hardening of the coal and rocks will
tender hewing more costly ; creeps and subsidences
of the strata will be unavoidable, and will crush a

^ The Report on the Health of Miners, which has just appeared,
states that in one Cornish mine, men work in an atmosphere varying
from 110® to 120° Fahr., but only for twenty minutes at a time, nearly
naked, and with cold water thrown over them. They sometimes lose
eight or ten pounds in weight during a day's work.

44 The Coal Question.

large portion of the coal or render it inacceasibl^ '
while explosions, fires^ floods^ and the hundred "^^
foreseen accidents and disappointments to wh^^
mining is alwajB subject, will lie as a burden on ^^
whole enterprise, a risk which no assurance comp^'*^'^
will venture upon. In addition to these speO^^^'^
difficulties, the whole capital and current expenditt^-^^^
of the mine naturally grows in a higher proporti^^^^^^^^
than the depth. The sinking of the shaft becom
a long and costly matter ; both the capital thus
has to be redeemed and interest upon it paid,
en^e powers for raising water, coal% miners^
rapidly increase, and, beyond aU the careful ven
tilation and management of the mine, render
large staff of mechanics, viewers, and attendants
indispensable.

Much may be done by working larger areas firom
the same shaft ; by forming consolidated companies
for economical drainage; by perfecting machinery,
and organizing labour to contend with the gro^
cost. But increased areas and distances of working,
though comparatively diTniniRhiTig the capital expense
of the shaft and works above ground, will increase
the current expenses of drainage, ventilation, and
general maintenance.

A full analysis of the detailed accounts of a
number of collieries of various depths would throw

Of the Cost of Coal Mining, 45

^reat Ught on this question, and might go far to
isolve the question of England's future career. But
:E>rivate commercial accounts are shrouded in such
impenetrable closeness, that no individual inquirers
<3a]i hope to gain the use of them. Even the
j^^veral Parliamentary Committees, in their prolonged
inquiries into the coal trade some thirty years ago,
^^i^ere continually frustrated by Mr. Buddie and other
-grTfiining engineers declining to communicate infor-
^rxiation known to them professionally and confi-
dentially. The investigation of such a subject might
»erhaps be best undertaken by a Committee of the
iritish Association, or some other learned Society.
An account of the South Hetton Colliery establish-
lent, a recent and well-arranged mine, throws light
this subject. It is published in a littie work of
16 Traveller's Library^ remarkable for the amount
k£ information it contains on the subject of coaL
Of 529 men employed in or about the colliery,
X 40 only are hewers of coal, representing the pro-
cliactive power of the establishment. We may
3-iTide the staflF as follows : —

Hewers of coal ^ 140

Patters, screeners, &c. . . . 227

Employed in administration and maintenance

of mine 123

Boys, yarionsly employed 39

* Our Coal and our CW-pits. London : 1853.

46 The Coal Question.

The "putters," " screeners,'* aud others, to the
number of 227, are occupied in pushing the coal
along the tramways from the hewer to the shaft ; in
raising it to the surface r screening it^ and removing
the stones, and, finally, loading it into the railway
waggon or ship's hold. They represent, as it were,
the trading part of the community, while the admi-
nistration represents the government ; consisting of
a manager, viewers, engineers, clerks, and a surgeon ;
with a great number of joiners, sawyers^ engine-
wrights, smiths, masons, carters, waggon-wrights,
and common labourers, as well as ventilators^ shiffcers^
foremen, and others of responsible duties under-
ground ; all occupied in keeping the mine, the
ventilation, machinery, engines, and the works gene-^
rally, in repair.

Now, if coal were quarried at the surface and
wheeled straight away, each hewer would scarcely
require more than one subsidiary labourer. In a
d^ miBe we find that nearl/ fl^ subridiary
labourers are required, so that four only accomplish
what two would do at the surface, to say nothing of
the timber and other materials consumed, and the
great capital sunk in the shaft, engines, and works
of the deep mine.

As mines become deeper and more extended, the
system of management necessary to facilitate the

Of ih^ Cost of Coal Mining. 47

working and diminish the risk of accidents, must
become more and more compKcated. The work is
not of a nature to be made self-acting, and capable
of execution by machinery. Even in the West
Ardsley Colliery, belonging to the patentees of the
coal-cutting machine, who naturally carry out its use
to the utmost possible extent, this machine is found *
to diminish the staflF only ten per cent. The labour
saved is only that of twenty-seven hewers, whHe
other branches of the staflF must be rather increased
than diminished. So diflferent, too, are the conditions
of coal-mining, that in many collieries the use of
coal-cutting machines is perhaps impracticable.

The deeper a mine the more fiery it in general
becomes. Carburetted gas, distilled from the coal,
perhaps, in former geological ages, lies pent up in
the fissures at these profound depths, and is ever
liable to blow oflF and endanger the lives of hundreds
of persons. It was supposed that George Stephenson
and Sir H. Davy had discovered a true safety lamp.
But, in truth, this very ingenious invention is like
the compass that Sir Thomas More describes in his
Utopia as given to a distant people. It gave them
such confidence in navigation that they were " farther
from caxe than danger.''

No lamp has been made, or, perhaps, can be made,

1 Prof. H: D. Rogers, in Good Words, April, 1864, p. 338.

48 The Coal Question.

that will prevent accidents when a feeder of gas ib
tapped, or a careless miner opens his lamp, or a drop
of water cracks a heated glass, or a boy stumbles
and breaks his lamp. The miner's lamp, in fact, is
never a safety lamp, except when carefully used in a
perfectly ventilated mine. Experience shows, in
fact, that perfect ventilation is the only sure safe-
guard against explosion. But it is no easy matter
to ventilate near a hundred miles of levels, inclines,
stalls, and goaves in a fiery mine.

The amount of drainage required in deepening our
mines is another point of the greatest importance.
The coal-measures themselves, containing many beds
of clay and shale, are dry enough in general, except
where interrupted by faults which aUow the water
to penetrate. Thus, the lower parts of deep mines
will in general be dry enough, but the passage through
the overlying Permian and New Ked Sandstone beds
may often be extremely costly, or almost impossible.

" In all the sinkings through the Magnesian Lime-
stone, feeders of water, more or less considerable, are
met with at a certain distance from the surface,
derived not so much by percolation through the
mass of the rock — for this can obtain to a small
extent only — but collected in and coming off the
numerous gullets and fissures which everywhere
intersect and divide the mass of strata. If the shaft

Of the Cost of Coal Mining. 49

\>^ not drained by pumping or otherwise, the water
these feeders rises to a point which remains,
in exceptional cases, constant. . . . Immediately

ixxicierlying the limestone is a bed of sandstone of

^^xry variable thickness, which, when exposed to

^^on of the atmosphere, disintegrates rapidly,

has hence acquired its local name of * friable

yoUow sandstone/ It is in sinking through this bed

of rapidly decomposing sandstone that such great

engixieering difficulties have been encountered, owing

to "fclie enormous quantity of water which, in some

casos, is met with, more especially if the bed be

tliiok, and much below the level of saturation/'

** -A very full account of the sinking of the Murton

W^inxdng is given by Mr. Potter, in Vol. V. of the

Transactions of this Institute. In this case, nearly

1C>,000 gallons of water per minute were pumped out

^f tliis bed by engines exceeding in the aggregate

IjSOO horse-power. The circumstances which favour

tb-e remarkable accumulation of water in the lime-

s*^^e, and the rapidity with which it is drained off

into pits sunk through it, are due to several causes,

some of which are peculiar to this formation, and

P^riiaps to this district. They are : —

'' 1. The arrangement of the beds of stratifica^
tion.

50 The Coal Qtiestion.

" 2. The contour of the country.

'* 3. The permeability of this formation to water/' '

In the sinking of Pemberton's pit at Monkwear-
mouth, a stratum of fieestone sand at the base of the
Magnesian Limestone, poured 3,000 gallons of water
per minute into the sinking. And when this flood
of water had been overcome by an engine of 1 80 (»
200 horse-power, and had been " tubbed back,'' a
new " feeder *' was met at the depth of 1,000 feet*
requiring fresh pump, and an additional outlay
money.' The shaft was commenced in May, 182
it was continued for eight and a half years befc^'
the first workable coal was reached ; and it was o]
in April, 1846, twenty years afterwards, that Hc:^^^^
enterprise was proved successful by the winning
the " Hutton Seam." The South Hetton and
Hetton pits were also very costly difl&cult winning
on account of the quicksands and irruptions of watei
And the winning of a pit at Haswell, in the couni
of Durham, through the Magnesian Limestone an(
the underlying sand, was found impracticable for a
like reason, in spite of engines capable of raising
26,700 tons of water per diem.'

In the continuous working of pits, even where
" tubbing " is used to keep the water out of the shaft

1 Brit. Assoc. Report, 1863, pp. 726, 727.
* Our Coal and our Coal Pits, p. 113. ' J6tU p. 115.

Of the Cost of Coal Mining. 51

as much as possible, the quantity of water is not
unusually seven or eight times as great as that of
the coal raised. At the Friar's Goose CoUiery, near
Gateshead, 6,000 tons of water are raised from the
mine every day, about twenty times as much as the
weight of the coal extracted. In some, such as
Percy Main and Wylam collieries, it reaches thirty
times the weight of the coal.

Now, when it becomes necessary to sink, not only
through the Magnesian Limestone, but through the
New Eed Sandstone, in order to reach new supplies
of coal, may not the water be found overpowering ?
MTx. Hull, in a valuable paper " On the New Eed
Sandstone and Permian Formations, as Sources of
^^ster-supply for Towns," ' has noticed the extremely
P^^x^)us and absorbent nature of the New Eed Sand-
stone. "JRain rapidly sinks into it, leaving a dry
®^il/' and " under and around all the towns built on
^'^^^ formation (or on the Permian) there lie natural
^^s^rvoirs of pure water." Now, when we come to
^^^^^^i two or three thousand feet through such forma-
tioxus, may not the water prove an insuperable
ol>st^le ?

question of secondary importance concerns the
"Kiit of thinness of workable coal seams. This is,
01 course, a question of the cost of mining. It is

^ "Manchester Memoirs, 3d series, 1861-2. VoL II. pp. 256, 257.

£ 2

52 The Coal Question.

found that, at the present price of coal, it is not
profitable to work seams of less than 18 or 24 inches
thickness. The reason is obvious. In working a
four-foot seam little rock has to be mined, since the
spaces from which the coal has been removed furnish.
the levels and conmiunications of the mine. In.
working a two-foot seam, however, large quantities
of rock have to be removed in addition to the coal>
and while the cost is hardly less than in a four-foo*
seam, the produce of coal is only one hal£ A on-^^
foot seam, again, would be worked at a very gr^^*
cost, and would furnish less than one fourth of tf^
produce of a four-foot seam. Either the larger se^*^*^^
must yield extraordinary profits, or else the thiniv'
seam cannot be worked.

In estimates of existing coaJ, 24 or 18 inches
taken as the limit of workable seams ; how wiU tl
limit be affected by probable changes in the cond^
tions of coal-mining? A considerable advance i
the price of coal will, of course, enable thinner seam^^
to be worked with profit. Thus, to some extent, the
rise of prices will be slackened. The higher the?^
price rises, the more thoroughly will the coal-measures
be worked, and the more coal becomes workable.
As, however, the high price of coal constitutes the
evil of exhaustion, the dreaded results are only
somewhat mitigated, not prevented. And it would

Of the Cost of Coal Mining. 53

\>e wholly erroneous to suppose that when once the

ttiicker seams of a coal district have been worked

out, we can readily, at a future time, work out the

thinner seams, when the increased price of coal

Warrants it. For it must be observed, that a very

iarge part of the cost of mining consists in the cost

of draining, ventilation, and maintenance of the

shaft, and works at the bank, which we may call the

general mining expenses. Now, when these expenses

^B Tindertaken for the purpose of working a thick

^^d valuable seam, it is often possible to work thin

seams of 18 or 24 inches without any considerable

^Ci^ease in the general expenses. In short, the thick

^Qxci pays the general expenses of the mine as well

^ its own cost of hewing, while it is sufficient if

**i^ thin seam leaves a small profit on the expenses

^^ hewing only. But the price of coal must rise in

a Very extreme degree, that an unworked thin seam

sttotild, at a future time, pay the general costs of

™'ainage, ventilation, and maintenance, as well as

*^^ cost of hewing.

The same is true of immense masses of coal left

^^derground during the former working of mines,

^ small or crushed coal, as pillars and barriers, or

^ outlying portions rendered difficult to mine by

^^ts, or other mining troubles. If such portions

of coal could not pay for removal when the mine

54 The Coal Question.

was in full working efficiency, they cannot pay the
whole costs of restoring and maintaining the mine
in a workable condition, not at least until the price
of coal has risen manifold.

All then that we can hope from thin seams^ ot
abandoned coal, is a retardation of the rise ofprk^^
after a coiisiderahle rise has already taken pl0^^-
This will hardly prevent the evils apprehended £ro3Cft
exhaustion.

Nor will the use of the coal-cutting machi>^^

much affect this question. By reducing the cost ^^
hewing and the waste of coal in the " kirving,''

cut made by the hewer, it will, undoubtedly, to so:
extent, allow thinner seams to be worked. At

same time, it wiU not affect the cost of remo
large masses of profitless rock, which is essential
working thin seams, nor the general cost of tht^
maintenance of the mine. If seams of 1 8 inches ar-
now occasionally workable, the coal-cutting machin
may reduce the limit a few inches ; but it is eviden^^^^^^
that seams of less than 12 inches could never be^
worked while the price of coal remained at all
tolerable.

Coal-mining is a fair fight with difficulties, and
just as the balance inclines between the difficulties
and the powers we possess to overcome them, will
the cost of coal and the prospects of this country

0/ the Cost of Coal Mining. 55

oscillate. What we can do to cheapen extraction,

indeed, is chiefly effected by turning the powers of

coal against itself, by multiplying steam power to

pmnp and wind, and cut and draw the coaL But

then the greater part of the work within the colliery

is of a kind that cannot be executed by machinery,

just ag the building of houses, or the digging of

loles, never has been, and scarcely can be, done by

machinery.

But be the difficulties what they may, we would
liave ingenuity and energy enough to overcome
"them, were the question one of a simple absolute
amount of difficulty. But in reality we must con-
sider our mines not by themselves, but in comparison
xvith those of other countries. Our main branches
of iron industry grew up at places like Wednesbury,
in South Staffordshire, *' where there being but little
oarth Ijdng over the measure of coal, the workmen
xid off* the earth and dig the coal under their feet,
ajid carry it out in wheelbarrows, there being no
need for windlass, rope, or corf." *

Our industry will certainly last and grow until
our mines are conmionly sunk 2,000 or 3,000, or even
4,000 feet deep. But when this time comes, the
States of North America will still be working coal

* Dr. Plot's Natural History of Staflfordshire, quoted in the " History
of Wednesbury," p. 101.

56 The Coal Question.

in the light of day, quarrying it in the banks of the
Ohio, and running it down into boats alongside.
The question is, how soon will our mines approach
the limit of commercial impossibility, and Jail to
secure us any longer that m/inufacturing supremacy
on which we are learning to he wholly dependent ?

Of the Price of Coal 67

CHAPTER IV.

OF THE PRICE OP COAL.

" Cheapness and goodness/' said Yarrington, " is,
and always will be, the great master and comptroller
of trade,'' and the reader will see that the whole
question of the exhaustion of our mines is a question
of the cost of coaL All commerce, in short, is a
matter of price. "Will it pay to do this at this
price ? " or, " Will it pay better to do this here at
this price or there at that price?" Such are the
leading questions which govern every commercial
undertaking in a free system of industry.

The exhaustion of our mines will be marked pari
passu by a rising cost or value of coal ; and when
the price has risen to a certain amount compara-
tively to the price in other countries, our main
branches of trade will be doomed. It will be well,
therefore, to inquire whether there has been any
recent serious rise in the price of coal such as would
be the sign of incipient exhaustion. Had a con-
siderable recent rise occurred, as I have heard

58 The Coal Question.

asserted, it might be argued that no such evil re-
sults have followed as alarmists prophesy, and then
the optimist would conclude that, perhaps, after all,
" dear coal " is not the fatal thing some suppose ;
this country may surmount that evil, it will be said,
as it has surmounted worse evils.

From what reliable accounts I have been able to
meet with, it is certain that there has been no such
recent rise of price as could at all operate as a check
upon our industry. Yet it is certain that coal has
been cheaper in the past than it can again be, and
that in the Great Northern market the growth of
demand during the last century haa been accom-
panied by a considerable but indefinite rise of price.

Where coal, indeed, used formerly to be had almost
for the askmg. it n«^ bear, . fir priee. In the
palmy days of the Staffordshire " Thick Coal ^' the
price of the best large coal was Qs. per ton of
21 cwts., and 120 lbs to the cwt., or 5s. Ad. per ton of
2,240 lbs. Coal was a drug about Birmingham, " so
much so, as to cause the coalowners to give great
extra weight. . . . There are many other veins at
present not thought worth getting, or jGrom one to
three yards thick ; inferior coals are sold at5«. per
ton, and from that upwards, in proportion to their
quality ; the small coals, for working engines, arc
sold from Is. to Is. 6d. per ton ; the supply produced

Of the Price of Coal 59

for the manufactures of the country would always be
sufficient, in my opinion, without increasing the
present price, as there are many new collieries now
opening." ^

The anticipations of the Ironmaster who gave this
opinion before the Committee of 1800 have not
proved true. The price of best coal in Staffordshire
is now nine shillings or more per ton (of 2,240 lbs.?),
and many writers concur in stating that the mag-
nificent "Thick Coal" of South Staffordshire has
been either used or wasted away. The wonderful
"black country'' already leans for its supplies of
coal and ore upon neighbouring parts ;* it seems to
be already overshadowed by the approaching decline
of prosperity. "He that liveth longest, let him
fetch fire farthest," was a proverb quoted by Dudley,*
two and a half centuries ago, with reference to the
lamentable waste of the Thick Coal, and now the
force of the proverb is becoming apparent.

The late strike of Staffordshire miners was occa-
sioned by the high price of coal. The activity of
the iron trade for the last year or two had led to
several advances in the price of coal and rate of
wages ; but though the price of iron remained pretty
high, it was found the trade could not bear the cost

1 Evidence of Alex. Raby. First Eeport on Coal Trade, 1800,

pp. 76, 77.

' See Chap. XIV. ' Metallum Martis, p. 8.

60 The Coal Question.

of coal. To prevent injury to the staple industry
of the district, the coal proprietors, somewhat arbi-
trarily, determined to reduce the price of coal by
cutting down the wages of the miners, and in this
they have been at least temporarily successful But
it is feared that the interruption of business occa-
sioned by the strike may have already contributed
to forward that migration of the iron trade to the
newer coal-fields which must soon take place.

It is almost impossible to get such general and
uniform statements of the price of. coal as would
warrant us in drawing comparisons over long periods
of time. The variations in the quality, size, and
dist^ance of supply constantly aflFect the price, inde-
pendently of duties and other obstacles. Almost all
the quotations of prices refer to the London market,
and are useless, because the prices there are not only
affected by freights, but have been burdened, more
or less, by duties and charges of a most complicated
character.

The only series of prices I have been able to make
out gives the average price of the best large coal
05 put free on hoard at Newcastle^ and the other
shipping places of the North. The first two prices
(1771 and 1794) are derived from the Keport of the
Select Committee of the House of Commons on the
Coal Trade in 1830 (p. 7). The prices of 1801—

Of the Price of Coal. 6 1

1851, are from a table of yearly prices published by
Mr. Porter, in his "Progress of the Nation'' (p. 277),
and are the average shipping prices as returned to
the Coal Exchange in London under Act of Parlia-
ment The last price (1860) is an average computed
for the General Committee of the Coal Trade o*
Newcastle, and communicated to the Mining Kecord
Office/

v-«- Average Shipping Price

*•*'• of Newcaatle CoaL

t. d,

1771 5 4 per ton.

1794 7 6 „

1801 10 4 „

1811 13 0 „

1821 12 8 „

1831 12 4 „

1841 10 6 „

1860 9 6 „

1860 9 0 „

This is probably as good and comparable a series
of prices as could be got ; yet it is very difficult to
draw inferences from it beyond the contradiction of
any recent considerable rise. The great rise of price
Tip to 1 8 1 1 was more or less due to the depreciation
of gold and paper currency, or to the other causes,
whatever they may have been, of the great general
rise of prices. The subsequent faU is, of course,
partly due to the restoration of our currency, and to
the other debatable causes of a general fall of prices.

^ Mineral Statistics for 1860, p. xxiii.

62 The Coal Question.

Before drawing any conclusion we must go further
into this subject of prices.

The method of calculating the general change of
prices, which was used in my pamphlet on the Value
of Gold, has been applied by me also to the tables
of prices contained in Mr. Tooke's History of Prices.
A series of numbers, not yet published, was thereby
obtained, which seems to represent to some degree
of approximation what may be most briefly de-
scribed as the variation of the value of the currency.
I find that the prices of about forty of the chief
materials of commerce fell between the years 1794
and 1860, in the proportion of —

100 to 62.

Now the price of coal rose in the proportion of
7s. 6d. to 9^., or as —

100 to 120.

Comparatively, then, to the general mass of com-
modities, the cost of coal rose as —

62 to 120,

or was almost exactly doubled.

We may, perhaps, interpret such a result in least
objectionable terms by saying, that the art of coal-
mining did not advance against the obstacles opposed
to it half so much as the arts producing the other

Of the Price of Coal 63

B.ef materials of commerce advanced in opposition

their obstacles; and it may, therefore, be confi-

tly stated, I think, that in the sense in which

vafluences industry^ the cost of coal has greatly

n in the past century.

There are, however, at least two other circum-

stsi^xices not to be lost sight of in comparing early

a.rLd late prices of coaL

nrstly, there is the limitation of the vend, an
arraoigement which used to exist among the coal
proprietors of the North, to limit the amount sold
^y ^^y colliery, in order that each colliery might
have a share of the trade proportional to its capa-
bilities. This combination maintained itself at
Intervals for about two centuries, and was much

^ffiplained of because it was supposed to raise the

•

pnee of coal It may have had some eflfect, especially
Bpon those better kinds of coal of which the price is
quoted,

Secondly, there is the practice of screening coals,

whereby a considerable portion of the coal raised at

the l>egiiiiiiiig of the century used to be separated

out and burnt as waste, the whole cost of raising the

coal l>eing paid in the price of the large coal sold.

Though cosia are stUl generally screened, the

« seconds,'' " nuts," and even the " dead small,'' or

" slack " are usually sold for manufacturing pui^oscs

64 Tlie Coal Question.

at prices proportional to the size of the coal Thr- -^
total price thus returned is increased by more thsu^
is represented in the price of the large coaL

Both the limittition of the vend, and the practice
of screening, would thus tend to raise the earher
quotations of price of large coal, as compared with
late quotations, and thus disguise the real rise of
price due to the growing demand and the . depth of
the mines.

I take it, therefore, to be pretty certain that the
cost of the best quality of Newcastle coal has been
more than doubled within three quarters of a cen-
tury by the growing depth of the collieries. It is
not to be said that trade is much affected by the
price of the very best coals, which are chiefly valued
for household purposes. But from the price of such
coal we learn what we should have to pay were all
coals drawn from depths of 1,000 or 2,000 feet or
more. The mines of South Wales, Scotland, and
Yorkshire are yet shallow, and the coal cheap
enough. The cost of the coal, especially, which
supports the great and rising iron trade in South
Wales and Scotland, is only four or five shillings
per ton.

The following are some returns of the price of
coal published by Mr. Hunt in the Mineral Sta-
tistics for 1860 : —

Of the Price of Coal. 65

Description of Goal. Price per Ton.

t^i^castle House Coal 9 0

Steam 8 0

Gas, Coking, and Manufacturing 5 6

rtyshire .... Best Coal 90

Common 6 6

Cost of Getting .... 5«. to 5 6

^N"o:r^ Staffordshire . Best 9 2

Common 6 0

Cost of Getting . . . 2«. 6(i. to 4 6

^'^-^•n.csafihire .... Best Coal 63

^ Lately 6 6

^^^ til Wales and Mon-

^^■^outhshire. . . . Large Coal 6 6

Small 4 6

^cotiland Average 4 0

Cost of Getting 2 8

-6 average cost of getting coal throughout the
c^^^^^titny was stated to be 4^. lOd. per ton, not in-
d^aitig profits, rent, and other charges.

^^ the veiy various prices of coal from the

S^'^^ral collieries of the Newcastle district, we have

evidence of the rise of price due to the depth of

iD^^^es. Shipping prices of coal are given in full

detail in the Eeport of the Committee of 1838

VP- 240), and taking the coals classed as Newcastle

Wallsend only, we find the price varying from

65. 6d to 11 5. 6cZ., the nuts and small coal ranging

down to 35. 9cZ. It is obvious that the difference

of jive shillings per ton in Wallsend coal must

eUher he absorbed by the expenses of deep mining,

or eke it must mxike the fortune of the proprietors

66 The Coal QueMxon.

or workers of the mines. That in some cases pro-
digious profits are made, as in the case of the
original Wallsend mine, is well known. But this
cannot usually be the case, otherwise the wide areas
of land yet known to contain untouched seams of
coal of the finest qualities, would at once be broken
up by speculators, who are never wanting. That
deep mines are so deliberately opened is a sufficient
proof that the highest prices obtained are^ taking
all mining risks and charges into axxount^ only an
average equivalent for the capital invested. These
deep pits can only be undertaken at present in
s(»arcli of coal of the finest household quality. The
Moiikwearmouth Pit was sunk to win the Hutton
seam, which yields coal of the highest possible
character. The Dukinficld Deep Pit was under-
taken to follow the celebrated Lancashire "Black
Mine," a four foot scam of the finest coal, selling
for IO5. per ton at the pit's mouth, the small coal
returning 5s. 6d. per ton.

The high prices, which are necessary in order to
tempt speculators to undertake deep mining, afford
a rough but sure indication of the effect of depth
upon the cost of coal. When the general depth of
coal workings has increased to 2,000 feet, little or
no coal will be sold for less than 10s. per ton, and
the choice large coal will have risen to a much

Of the Price of Coal 67

Uglier price. Our iron and general manufacturing
^dustries will have to contend with a nearly-
doubled cost of fuel And when with the growth
^f our trade and the course of time our mines

•

^^vitably reach a depth of 3,000 or 4,000 feet, the
^creasing cost of fuel will be an incalculable ob-
^*^le to our further progress.

F 2

70 The Coal Question.

much of the fame due to Roger Bacon. No one
the least acquainted with the history of science in
Europe, can suppose that Francis Bacon gave rise to
the sciences and arts which were rising and flourish-
ing in Italy, and France, and Germany, a century
or more before. Great as was Bacon in many waya^
we cannot regard him as more than an expounder
of the scientific tendency of his age. And after the
severe, and for the most part, the true exposure of
his claims by Baron Liebig,^ it is to be hoped that
we shall give up some of our absurd national falla-
cies concerning him.

How much of the arts we owe to Continental
nations, may be learnt from a simple enumeration
of our principal debts. It is in Mr. Smiles' volumes
that the history of the arts in Britain has been
brought to our notice. These volumes seem to me
one of the most valuable contributions ever made
to our general history, and the facts adduced by
him clearly establish that until about the middle of
last century we were wholly behindhand in all that
relates to skilled industry, and were justly treated
by the great advanced nations of the Continent —
by Italy, Spain, France," and Holland — as poor, un-
cultivated, but proud islanders. " England,*' he
says, " was then regarded principally as a magazine

* Macmillan's Magazine, June, July, 1863.

Of British Invention, 69

th^ revival of knowledge and the arts. Now,

tboTigh we have poets and philosophers, works and

diacioveries, which in their own way are unrivalled,

wfe siould remember that other nations have their

triuxnphs in their way imrivalled. We are but one

ajaong the crowd of nations whose beneficent deeds

^^ recorded in impartial history. And if we at

present possess a certain leading and world-wide

^^iience, it is not due to any general intellectual

superiority, but to the union of certain happy quaU-

ties ^th our, as yet, unrivalled material resources.

The first general fact we may observe concerning
-British Invention is, that almost all the arts we
pi^ctised in England, until within the last century,
"W'ere of Continental origin. England, until very
lately, was young and inferior in the arts.

Secondly, we may observe that almost all the
arts and inventions we have of late contributed,
spring fi^om our command of coal.

Such generalizations are very subject to excep-

tiou. Roger Bacon is an illustrious exception, and

it seems likely that there were other Englishmen in

^ days of lofty talents. Still, they drew their

education and information from the Continent, and

^ey lived in such a time and place that their

works were unappreciated, and left no mark in the

creation of the arts. Francis Bacon has usurped

72 The Coal Question.

eminent But a century ago^ as most Englishmen
will be surprised to learn, our engines and contri-
vances in common use were only those &miliar to
the Germans 100 or 200 years before.

The horse-gin, the double reversing water-wheel,
the chain-pump, ventilating contrivances, such as
bellows, fans, lamps, furnaces, together with the
underground wheeled carriage, were introduced fix)m
Germany, probably by the German miners brought
over in considerable numbers during the reigns of
Elizabeth and the Stuarts. These inventions, in
fact, were described in the work of Agricola pub-
lished in 1556, and this writer was acquainted with
such valuable contrivances as the fly-wheel, and the
crank and beam.^ Hooson, an early writer on
coal-mining, expressly says, "we do not know of
anything material or useful that has been found out
for the better, than what has been left us by our
forefathers; but rather much impaired by neglect
and idleness." ^

Gunpowder is an almost indispensable agent in
mining, and was used by the Germans as early as
1613. Its use in blasting was introduced into this
country in 1665, and, according to Kobert Bald,® the

* Taylor's Archaeology of the Coal Trade, p. 186, in Memoirs of the
British Archaeological Association, 1858.

' Hooson's Miner's Dictionary, 1747, quoted by Taylor, p. 187.
^ Scotch Coal Trade, p. 12.

Of British Invention. 73

ancient method of drilling and wedging rocks
open by the stook and feathers, without powder,
was still used in Scotland at the beginning of last
century.

Metallurgy is a kindred art that we now carry
out on a vast scale; but, with the exception of
the processes depending on the superior abundance
and excellence of our coal, both the theory and
practice of metallurgy are mainly due to the
Germans. Dr. Percy, in the preface to his important
work on Metallurgy, has drawn attention to the fact
that we have scarcely any literature on the subject,
and must draw our information from the two leading
works of Agricola in 1556, or Karsten in 1831, or
from the large collection of monographs, periodical
publications, and complete treatises on Metallurgy,
with which the German language abounds. Even
the Swedes, Scheele and Berzelius, have made greater
contributions to tiie art than individual Englishmen
can boast of.

Many of the arts of working iron were drawn
from the Continent. It will be shown in the chapter
on the Iron Trade, that the first efibrts towards the
erection of our great iron manufacture were made
by German metallurgists. It was Godfrey Box, of
Lifege, who erected at Dartford, in 1590, the first
iron mill for slitting bars ; and from the slitting-

74 The Coal Question.

mill was no doubt derived the notion of the rolling-
mill as used by Cort. Yarranton went to Saxony to
learn the process of tinning iron plates, as carried on
there with great profit, and he was allowed to engage
workmen and inspect all the steps of .the manufac-
ture. The making of clasp-knives was introduced
into Sheffield in 1650, by Flemish workmen, such
knives having been previously known as joctelegSy
from Jacques de Lifege, a celebrated foreign cntler.*
The casting of iron cannon was a French invention,
introduced into Sussex in 1543, by Peter Baude, a
Frenchman, brought over by Ralph Hogge, the
Sussex ironmaster, who also employed a Flemish
gunsmith, Peter van Collet, to make his explosive
shells/

Engineering was taught us by Continental nations
until we developed our own new modes of engineer-
ing with iron. The Dutch, having redeemed their
own country from the sea, were masters of the art of
embankment, drainage, and inland navigation. The
history of the works carried out by them in our fens,
of the skill, capital, and labour they expended here,
and the precarious profits they carried back, is to be

* See Bums "On the late Captain Grose's Peregrinations." "A
faulding jocteleg." In some parts of Yorkshire a large clasp knife is
still known as a *' jack-a-le^s knife."

' Smiles' Industrial Biography, p. 68. ^ Ibid. p. 33.

Of British Invention. 75

found in Mr. Smiles' volumes.' We are reminded of
the part wMch we play in the railways, canals, and
public works of the United States and our Colonies.
Even as late as 1748, we owed to Labelye, the Swiss
architect, the reconstruction of the south level of
the Fens, and the building of Westminster Bridge.*
When a tidal engine was required to pump water
from the Thames for the supply of London, Peter
Morice, a Dutchman, was employed to erect it.*

Scotland was even more backward than England.
When in 1708 windmills were wanted to try and
drain certain Scotch coal-mines; John Young, the
millwright of Montrose, was found to be the only
maa in the country who could erect windmills. He
had "been sent at the expense of that town to
Holland, in order to. inspect the machinery of that
country," and "it was suggested that if this mill-
wright could not be procured, application should be
made to the Mechanical Priest in Lancashire for
his advice.'^ *

In maritime enterprise we were always daring,
but only of late have we been eminently expert or
successful. " At a time," says Mr. Smiles,* " when
Spain, Holland, France, Genoa, and Venice were

^ lives of the Engineers, vol. i. pp. 39-40.

5 Ibid. p. 66. 3 Ibid. Pref. p. vi.

* Bald, Scotch Coal Trade, p. 7.

* Lives of the Engineers, vol. i. p. 276.

76 The Coal Question,

gnat maritime powers, England was almost without
a AkZ. the little trade which it carried on with other
ctioniries being conducted principally by foreigners.
Osr best ships were also built abroad by the Vene-
tians or the Danes, but they were mostly of small
tonnage, little bigger than modem herring boats.''

The herring fishery was regarded both by Holland
and England as the " chiefest trade and gold-mine/'
and * the way to winne wealtL" It was thought to
b« a pure creation of riches, and to nourish at the
T^iCLr rime a race of hardy seamen that are the pride
JJ!!-.: sjkfen' of the kingdom. But it raised unutter-
x:i'i rV^iings in English writers of a century or
3w,^ jki>\ to olxserve that the Dutch fished our own
51c*?!. Holland, •^ not exceeded in quantity by Norfolk
antl Suffolk, hath gotten the sea/' bitterly says the
author of The Trades' Ina^ase. And when we got
herrings we had to learn from the Flemish how to
cure them.

The Dutch, as is well known, were oiu* predeces-
sors in trade, A writer of the year 1615 thus speaks
" without love or anger, but with admiration of our
iM'ijjliboura the now Sea Herrs, the nation that get
h«^»lth out of their own sicknesse, whose troubles
i^^*.\^- {\m\ liluM^y, brought forth their wealth, and
l'Ai'ii,-Ut ^4^ Uuvir rttxH3ngth, that have, out of our
'^**^\^^W^ y^^Uvv*^ themselves a living, out of our

Of British Invention. 77

wants make their own supply of trade and shipping
there ; they coming in long after us, equal us in
those parts in all respects of privilege and port ; that
have devanced us so farre in shipping that the
Hollanders have more than one hundred saile of
shippes that use those ports, continually going and
returning, and the chiefest matters they doe lade
outward be English commodities, as Tinne, Lead,
and Bailes, of such like stuflfe, as are made at
Norwich/' *

Campbell was aware of their commercial supe-
riority. " By keeping their customs low," he says,
"they have their warehouses always ftdl of goods
and manufactures of every kind. . . . Rough and raw
materials they cleanse and sort; gross and bulky
commodities they import in one kind of vessels,
divide and export them in others. A low interest
keeps the bulk of their cash in trade; working
cheap, and selling at a small profit, secures them
continual employment."* The Dutch, in short,
understood the principles and practice of commerce,
and had a^free and far-spreading trade when we
were yet sunk in poverty and the fallacies of the
mercantile and restrictive systems. And it was the
Venetians, Jewish, and other foreign merchants of

* The Trades^ Increase, p. 7.

* Campbell's Survey, vol. i. p. 15.

78 Th^ Coal Question.

Lombard Street, who laid the foundations of our vast
trading and monetary system.

While we were so much inferior to Continental
natioDS in the fundamental operations of trade and
industry, it is almost needless to observe, that in the
more luxurious arts of life we were wholly indebted
to them. " Our first cloth-workers, silk-weavers,
and lace-workers were French and Flemish refugees.
The brothers Elers, Dutchmen, began the pottery
manufacture ; Spillman, a German, erected the first
paper-mill at Dartford ; and Boomen, a Dutchman,
brought the first coach into England.^' ^ The name
of the fabric, Brown Holland, shows whence we
derived it. The arts, indeed, of weaving and
whitening linen attained high perfection in Flanders
and Harlem, especially while the common processes
of dyeing were wholly the work of foreigners, chiefly
Germans.^

France was then, as now, supreme in many little
branches of manufacture, such as those of glass, hats,
paper, linen, sail-cloth, sword-blades, scissors, and
many steel " toys." The " running " of such light
articles, fortunately, could not be prevented. We
also drew from them " wine, brandy, linen, fine lace,
fine cambricks, and cambrick lawns, to a prodigious

* Smiles' Engineers, vol. i. Pref. p. vi.
^ Barlow's Cyclopaedia, p. 521.

Of IsHtish invention. 79

value ; brocades, velvets, and many other rich silk
manufactures, which are either run in upon us, or
come by way of Holland/' '

Generally the advanced arts and knowledge of
Continental nations seem to have been communi-
cated to us without jealousy or reserve. Yarranton,
for instance, in his tours of observation in Holland,
enjoyed every facility. Sometimes we resorted to
deceit ; as when Foley, according to one account,
gained the axt of splitting iron from the Swedes ;
and Sir Thomas Lombe, the use of the water-frame
in the silk manufacture. Such achievements, when
in our favour, are treated as romantic and courageous
adventures, but when foreigners now come prying
into our factories, forges, and chemical works, we are
apt to treat them as sneaking rogues.

Even the steam-engine cannot be claimed as a
purely indigenous invention. But before we con-
sider this point, or go on to enumerate the undoubted
contributions we have made, it is necessary to dis-
criminate the conditions of invention.

There seem to be three essential conditions, too
often confused or overlooked: — First, a distinct
PURPOSE, arising from, an urgent need of some new
means of accomplishing a given end. Secondly, a

* Joshua Gee, The Trade and Navigation of Great Britain considered.
1738, 4th ed. p. 18.

80 The Coal Question.

new PRINCIPLE, or mode, by which it is to be accom-
plished. Thirdly, the material, power, and alnll for
embodying this principle in a successfiil machine, —
in short, the construction.

For instance, as a maritime nation, we felt during
last century the most urgent need of some certain
method of determining the longitude of a ship at
sea : here was a strong purpose. Astronomy pointed
out several diflferent principles on which it might be
done, the most convenient one involving the use of
a good time-keeper. It was Harrison, of Liverpool,
who, under the stimulus of a large Government
reward, invented the ship's chronometer, and supplied
the material construction of the method now com-
monly employed.

Now, as regards the history of the steam-engine,
there is no doubt that an urgent need was felt at
the l)eginiiing of the seventeenth century of a more
powerful means of draining our mines. Sir George
Selby, in Parliament, said, as early as 1610, that
" the coal-mines of Newcastle could not hold out the
term of their lease of twenty-one years." * This was
on account of the cost, or impossibility of draining
them to any depth. The terms in which the engine
xcas doscril)ed, and the way in which it was actually
usod ^>t nearly two centuries, show that the raising of

^ 1\vlorVi Archaeology of the Coal Trade, p. 186.

Of British Invention. 8 1

water out of our mines was the all important object
aimed at — ^the first condition — the purpose.

The cheap coal, drawn from the self-same mines,
was to prove the material power, or third condition,
of the great invention; but, in the meantime, we
needed a new natural principle of action. Now
candour obliges us to allow that we owe this prin-
ciple immediately to science and to France. It is
true, that the English writer, Hugh Platte, had, in
1594, shown how the steam of boiling water might
be made to issue in a powerful jet, sufficient to blow
a fire.^ But he probably owed this notion to some
of the works of practical science and. ingenuity
which abounded at that time on the Continent.
But it is, no doubt, as Arago insisted,^ Solomon de
Cans, a French engineer employed by King Charles,
who spread abroad in England scientific notions of
raising water by the expansive force of steam. His
work, "Les Kaisons des Forces Mouvantes," was
first published in the year 1615, several years before
the era of Bacon's "Organum.^' A print in this
work showed a metallic globe, containing water
heated by a fire. A long, upright, open pipe passed
air-tight through the top of the globe, and terminated
in the water near the bottom of the globe. The

^ Jewell House of Ai't aud Nature, No. 21. London.
« Life of Watt, 1839, p. 46.

82 The Coal Question.

water, urged by the expansive force of the steam
within the globe, is represented as issuing forcibly
from the top of the pipe.

A second edition of the work appeared in 1624 ;
and in 1644 was published, at London^ by Isaac de
Cans, a partial reprint, distinctly entitled, " Nouvelle
Invention de lever VEau^

Now, considering that the earliest patents which
apparently refer to a steam-engine are of the
years 1627 and 1631;^ that the Marquis of
Worcester's " water-conmianding engine^' and his
almost prophetic statements were of the year 1663 ;
that Sir S. Morland s proposals were made in
1683 ; and Thomas Saver/s success in 1698 ; it is
hard to deny that we owe the engine, as regards
the second or scientific condition, to a French
work

The Marquis of Worcester's engine was the first
we know to have been really constructed. Its pur-
pose is clearly stated in the " Exact and True De-
finition,'' by " an antient Servant of his Lordship."

" There being, indeed, no place but either wanteth
water, or is overburthened therewith (and), by this
engine either defect is remediable." Its principle,
there is little doubt, was that enunciated by

* Rymer's Foedera, vol. xviii. p. 992 ; or, Calendars of the State
Paper Office. See Domestic Series.

Of British Invention. 83

De Cans ; but with its construction we are not
acquainted.

It is in Thomas Savery's description of his engine
that we can most clearly discriminate the conditions
of the great invention. The purpose was clearly
to raise water and drain mines, as indicated by
the title of his excellent little publication, "The
Miner's Friend," but most explicitly stated within.
" I do not doubt,'' he says,^ " that, in a few years, it
will be a means of making our mining trade, which
is no small part of the wealth of this kingdom,
double if not treble to what it now is." He con-
tinues,* — " the coals used in this engine are of as little
value as the coals conmionly burned on the mouths
of the coal-pits are ;" and " the charge of them is
not to be mentioned, when we consider the vast
quantity of water raised, by the inconsiderable value
of the coals used, and burned in so small a furnace."
Here we have the most distinct statement that the
purpose of the engine was to use the waste and
valueless slack coals to overcome the great obstacle
to the progress of our mines. The position which
Savery contemplated for his engine was, clearly, the
mouth of a coal-pit

As to the principle of the invention, it was that
of De Cans, with the additional principle of the

* Page 6. 9 Pages 36, 36.

G 2

84 The Coal Question.

vacuum, which may have been the discovery of
Savery himself.

It is, however, in the construction of the machine
that Savery's highest credit seems to Ke. " I have
met," he says,^ " with great difficulties and expense
to instruct handicraft artificers to forme my engine,
according to my design/' And whoever examines
the picture of his engine, either in the original
works or copies, will be struck by the very compact
and workmanlike form of the machine, which would
be a creditable piece of mechanical work even at the
present day. There is no doubt that, by this time,
the use of cheap and excellent coal, at Wolverhamp-
ton, Birmingham, and Sheffield, had enabled our
artizans to acquire remarkable skill in the working
of metals ; ^ and it is to this facility of construction,
joined to the principle published by De Cans, but
especially to the strong purpose and incitement
offered by the condition of our coal-mines, that I
should attribute the complete invention of the
steam-engine.

Savery's engine was extremely wasteful of heat,
because the steam came in actual contact with the
cold water to be moved. It was so imeconomical,

^ Miner s Friend. Prefatory Address to the Royal Society.
^ See Dr. Plot's account of the artizans of Wolverhampton, Wakall,
and the neighbourhood, Natural History of Staffordshire, p. 376.

Of British Invention. 85

that, in spite of the cheapness of coals, it could not
come into use. Denis Papin, a French refugee, and
an engineer of the highest mechanical talents, sup-
plied and published, before the Eoyal Society, in
1699, the new principle required to perfect the
dhgine, that of a piston intervening between the
steam and water.^ But the Frenchman was defi-
cient in constructive power ; and it was reserved for
Newcomen to accomplish the atmospheric engine,
which proved capable of draining our mines and
reviving our industry.

The subsequent great steps in the improvement
of the engine consisted chiefly in methods of using
the steam more economically, and will be considered
in the following chapter.

The atmospheric engine, especially when per-
fected in some mechanical details by Smeaton, was
employed throughout the century, not only to drain
the coal and Cornish mines, but, in the absence of
the crank, or the sun and planet wheels of Watt, to
raise water to turn water-wheels where a natural
supply of water was deficient, an emplojrment antici-
pated by Ramsay, Worcester, Morland, and Savery.

The engine, from an early period of its history,
turned the tide of the arts. As Briavoinne re-

* Papin is again noticed in chap. viii.

86 The Coal Question.

marked,- it was indispensable that other nations
should follow England in adopting this newly found
power; and, between 1722 and 1733, the first
engine was imported from England into Belgium,
and set to work by the aid of English mechanics.*

Its effect upon the English mines was extra-
ordinary. " The steam-engine produced a new era
in the mining and commercial interests of Britain,
and, as it were in an instant, put every coal-field,
which was considered as lost, within the grasp of its
owners. Collieries were opened in every district^
and such has been the astonishing effect produced
by this machine, that great coal was shipping free
on board in- the Eiver Forth, in the year 1785, at
45. 1 Od. per ton ; that is, after a period of seventy
years, coals had only advanced 2c?. per ton, while
the price of labour and all materials was doubled." *

Of hardly less importance than the steam-engine
are the new modes of conveyance, gradually intro-
duced or discovered here, during the last two
hundred and fifty years. Common roads, worth
calling such, only began to be made in the middle
of last century, when the enterprise of the country
was roused by the new influence of steam and iron.

^ Briavoinne, De Tlndustrie en Belgique, Bruxelles, 1839, p. 201.
2 Toilliez. " M^moire sur rintroduction des Machines h. Vapeur dans
le Hainaut." Quoted by Briavoinne, p. 226.
8 Bald on the Scotch Coal Trade, p. 24.

Of British Invention. 87

Between 1760 and 1774, no fewer than 452 Acts for
making or repairing highways passed through Par-
liament;' and it is necessary to read Mr. Smiles'
volume to form a notion of the previous wretched
state of our commimications. Common roads, how-
ever, have Kttle farther connexion with our subject.

Canals might alsa seem utterly disconnected from
the use of coal. Certainly, both in principle and
construction, they have nothing to do with it.
HoUand, France, Sweden, and Kussia, had created
and developed, on a large scale, the art of making
canals long before we had a single canal. Holland
enjoyed a magnificent system of artificial water
communication. France had connected the Loire
and Seme, the Loire and Sa6ne and the Atlantic
Ocean with the Mediterranean ; Peter the Great had
constructed a canal from the Don to the Volga.

Bnt, until coal supplied the purpose, there was
not spirit enough in this country to undertake so
formidable a work as a canal. In spite of Yarran-
tons demonstration of the advantages of inland navi-
gation, the first true canal Act was passed in 1755
for makmg the Sankey Brook Cut, to enable the coal
of St. Helen's to reach the Mersey. But this small
work drew the Duke of Bridgewater's attention to
tne profit to be derived from a more economical

^ Smiles' Lives of the Engineers, vol. i. p. 206.

88 The Coal Question,

mode of conveying coal to Manchester. In getting
an Act passed to cut the celebrated canal from his
mines at Worsley to Salford, he bound himself not
to charge more freight on coal than 2s. 6d., the pre-
vious cost of carriage having been 9s. or 10s. The
opening of the canal at once reduced the price of
coal in Manchester, from 7d. per cwt. (120 lbs.) to
3^d.^ ; and it is impossible to say how much such a
reduction may not have contributed to the growth
of industry in that great centre. And, while one
branch carried fuel, the other branch of this grand
work was carried from Manchester to the Mersey, in
order that raw materials might be brought into con-
junction with the fuel, and the finished products
conveyed back. The Duke of Bridgewater's view of
the innate power of England was clearly shown in
his saying that "a navigation should always have
coals at the heels of it." '

Eailroads, however, are' perhaps our great, and it
would seem, our purely indigenous invention. The
principle involved is little more than that of a wheel
upon a hard road, but it is surprising how entirely
the development of the principle has been connected
with our coal trade. The first known use of the
rail is due to Beaumont, in the year 1630. This

ft
-■" • .\\

^ Smiles' Lives of tbe Engineers, vol. i. pp. 3^4 — 361.
' Ibi<J, vol. i. p. 40X.

Of British Invention. 8 9

gentleman went to Newcastle at a period of our
history when enterprise and ingenuity seemed the
rule. But his merits and his reward are summed
up in this quaint passage : — " One Master Beaumoift,
a gentleman of great ingenuity and rare parts,
adventm'ed into the mines of Northumberland with
his 30,000Z. and brought with him many rare
engines, not then known in that shire, and waggons
with one horse, to carry down coals from the pits to
the river ; but within a few years he consumed all
his money, and rode home upon his light horse/'

The early rails were simple bars of wood, laid
parallel upon wooden sleepers, or embedded in the
ordinary track to diminish friction. They were
gradually introduced into the other coal districts of
Wales, Cumberland, and Scotland — at Whitehaven
as early as 1738. It was soon found that a slip of
iron, nailed upon the wooden rail, was economical in
preventing wear ; and when the abundance of iron
had been increased by the coal-blast furnace, rails
made entirely of iron were substituted. Such iron
rails were first used by Eeynolds at the Coal-
brookdale works, the birthplace of the smelting
furnace, to facilitate the conveyance of coal and ore.
In 1776, again, a cast-iron tramway, or plate-way,
was introduced into the underground workings of
the Duke of Norfolk's colliery, at Sheffield, by John

90 The Coal Question.

Curr, whose writings prove his perception of the im-
portance of the improvement^ It was in 1789 that
William Jessop made a railway at Loughborough,
with cast-iron edge rails, and a flange transferred to
the waggon wheel Finally, in 1820, nearly two
hundred years after tiie employment of wooden rails,
wrought-iron rails, invented by Mr. Birkenshaw,
were rolled at the Bedlington iron-works, on the
river Blyth, near Newcastle.*

But the railway was incomplete without steam
power. Every one knows the history of the loco-
motive—that it was brought into successful use by
George Stephenson^ the colliery engineman, for the
purpose of leading coals from the pit to the
shipping place; that, after long exertions, it was
proved more economical than horse-power, and that
when the growing goods traffic between the coal-
driven factories of Manchester and the port at
Liverpool had altogether exceeded the powers of the
canal, that railway was undertaken which led to our
present great system.

Throughout the history, then, of this great and
indigenous invention, we constantly find the pur-
pose and construction alike dependent on the work-
ing of coal. The conveyance of great weights of

* Coal Viewer's and Engine Builder's Practical Companion, 1797.
' Report of British Association, 1863, p. 760.*

Of British Invention. 91

coal was the purpose; the energy that is in coal,
and the cheap iron it yields, suppUed the construe-
tive means of accomplishing that purpose. Not
unnaturally, then, was Newcastle the cradle of the
raHway system.

Although, in later years, railways have been ex-
tended through purely agricultural countries, such
as Eussia or some of the States of North America,
yet we may observe, in many places, and especially
in England, that the rapid extension of railways is
mainly due to the traffic and wealth occasioned by
the use of coal in manufactures. It was long ago
observed by a writer on the coal trade, that " the
numerous canals, and conveyances from the distant
parts of the kingdom, and to local stations, owe
their existence to the wealth acquired by the use of
coal.'' ^ Now, if a series of railway-maps of Great
Britain, for the last twenty or thirty years, be
closely examined, it will be apparent, not only that
the railway system was developed on the coal-fields,
but that it yet converges upon them, just as the
arteries and veins of the animal body converge
upon the heart and lungs. The densely crowded
lines of railway around Newcastle, Manchester, and
Wolverhampton, form the heart of the railway
system. There are, indeed, several great aortal

^ O. Beaumont, Treatise on the Coal Trade, 1789, p. 2.

92 The Coal Question.

lines, which connect the coal-fields with each other
or with the metropolis, the head of the body ; or the
metropolis with the continent ; but, in every other
direction, it will be observed that the railway
system becomes sluggish in proportion to its
distance from a coal-field, the traffic subdividing
and dwindling away like the arterial streams of
the animal body. The least successful railways
are the Great Western, the Great Eastern, and
other lines of raUway which run into the most
purely agricultural parts of the kingdom. Wise
and far-seeing, then, were the favourite notions of
George Stephenson : — " The strength of Britain,*'
he used to say, "lies in her iron and coal-beds;
and the locomotive is destined, above all other
agencies, to bring it forth. The Lord Chancellor
now sits upon a bag of wool, but wool has long
ceased to be emblematical of the staple commodity
of England. He ought to sit upon a bag of coals.'* ^
As regards bridges, the command of iron has
given us advantages of construction never before
enjoyed. Italian and French engineers were alto-
gether our superiors in bridge-building until near
the end of last century ; but they failed, as in an
instance at Lyons, in 1755, in iron bridges, "chiefly
because of the inability of the early founders to cast

^ Smiles' Engineers, vol. iii. p. 357,

Of British Invention. 93

large masses of iron, and also "because the metal was
then more expensive than either stone or timber." *
The first iron bridge was erected at Coalbrookdale,
by Messrs. Keynolds and Darby, in 1777; and we
know what has since been accomplished, in the con^
struction of iron bridges, when the extension of
roads and railways presented an adequate purpose.

Iron presents the necessary material condition of
several things, which would not be supposed to be
dependent on it. The supply of water depends on
the use of iron pipes. When Sir H. Middleton had
brought the New Eiver to London, he found the
distribution of the water a matter of the greatest
difficulty — ^the old wooden pipes wasting one-fourth
of the supply, and being subject to rapid decay.*
Coal-gaB, again, itself an important product of coal,
could not be used in its present abundance and
economy, without the use of iron-distributing pipes.^

A more important use of iron is in the develop-
ment of mechanical engineering in general. Our
inventions for spinning and weaving by machine
are not, in their origin, dependent on coal, the early
mills having been turned by water, and involved
but little iron work. The development and perfec-
tion of our factory system, however, could never

^ Smiles' Engineers, voL ii. p. 355. ^ Ibid. vol. i. p. 126.

s Hearn's Plutology, 1864.

94 The Coal Question.

have been carried far without abundance of iron.
"The inventions of Arkwright, Crompton, and
others," says Mr. Fairbaim,^ " could not have been
executed but for iron ; and it is fortunate for the
industrial resources of the country, that the manu-
facture of iron has kept pace with our industrial
progress. I am not able to state the amount of
consumption of iron in machine-making alone, but
taking that for cotton machinery in only one of our
largest firms, that of Messrs. Piatt and Co. of Old-
ham, I should average at 400 or 500 tons per week ;
and in that of my late brother. Sir Peter Fairbaim,
of Leeds, in flax and other machines, at 250 to 300
tons per week.''

In some of the old water-mills, yet working in
remote country places, we may* see the ponderous
wooden shafts, spindles, and wheels, which seem
hardly adapted now-a-days to receive motion, much
less to communicate it Brindley was brought up
as a millwright, in the use of wood, and long clung
to it — even making wooden-hooped cylinders for
engines, which were naturally apt to break down.
But having at last discarded brick, stone, and wood,
he constructed in 1763 at Coalbrookdale, an engine
that was a "complete and noble piece of iron-

* Two Lectures on Iron and its applications. Newcastle, 1864,
p. 15.

Of British Invention, 95

work." ' Smeaton carried forwaxd the substitution
of iron for wood ; but it was Eennie who esta-
blished its general use, in his celebrated Albion
Mills, the whole of his wheels and shafts being of
cast-iron. We find, then, in cast-iron, a material
condition which allowed a general advance in the
construction of our machines.

A second substitution, however, has taken place,
of wrought-iron for cast-iron. It is Mr. Fairbaim
chiefly who introduced the use of Ught wrought-
iron • shafting for heavy, slow cast-iron work, and
thus effected a general economy and advance in the
employment of machine power, almost comparable
with that of Brindley, Smeaton, and Kennie.^

It only remains to be added, that the use of steel,
could Mr. Bessemer produce it sufficiently cheap,
would occasion a third, and, as far as we can see,
a final substitution of steel for nearly every other
material ; so that our machines would be carried to
an apparent maximum of efficiency, economy, and
elegance, as regards the materials of our works.

The shaping and moulding of iron, on the large
scale, demanded a wholly new set of arrangements.
A purpose having arisen for new inventions, the
ancient principles of the lathe, the hammer, and the

* Smiles* Engineers, vol. i. pp. 332-3.
^ Fairbaim on Mills and Mill-work.

98 Tlie Coal Question.

There is no better example of what our united
inventions can accomplish than the iron or steel
screw steam- vessel, the product of coal from truck
to keel, — ^hull, engines, masts, rigging, anchors.

Of this product of our industry, Mr. Porter re-
marked, that " it is one in which our mineral riches
and our great mechanical skill will secure to us a
virtual monopoly/' And any one who considers the
present progress of iron-ship building in this coun^
try must see that, half a century hence, our chief
ocean conveyances Tdll be wholly by steam. Sailing
vessels will not be entirely discarded, but will
occupy a subordinate rank, similar to that of canal
boats and coasting vessels. Our world-wide com-
munications will be improved, in a degree now
perhaps unthought of ; but we caimot forget that a
steam- vessel is endowed with a constant and vora-
cious appetite for coal, that must fearfully accelerate
the drain upon our mines.

There yet remains a whole class of inventions, of.
a chemical rather than a mechanical nature, where a
substance has to be altered in its intimate constitu-
tion, instead of its outward form. In these inven-^
tions, iron is in a very minor degree useful; and
accordingly, it can hardly be asserted that in the
chemical and experimental sciences and arts we
are more than barely equal to the French or

Of British Invention. 99

Germans. Photography, for instance, presents an
instance of equal progress in several different
nations.

Many remarkable instances have occurred of the
conmiercial replacement of one chemical substance
by another. The progress of commerce often de-
pends on such replacements, as when the palm and
cocoa oils are used instead of tallow and linseed oils ;
silk instead of wool, cotton instead of flax, Spanish
grass instead of rags, wheat instead of rye or buck-
wheat, turnips instead of hay.

So far as such substances are beyond the con-
structive arts, and of purely organic origin, they are
beyond our present subject. But many of the more
important substitutions are due to coal. Most
chemical processes depend on the use of heat ; and
our cheap fuel has enabled us to raise many great
branches of chemical manufacture. Our Cheshire
salt-mmes, with the aid of cheap coal, give us a
supremacy in the salt trade, reversing the import
trade which used to be carried on, when salt was
^^e by the natural evaporation of sea-water on
the coasts of France, Spain, and the Mediterranean.
Cheap saltj again, with abundance of fuel, was made
^ yield carbonate of soda, which replaced, with a
great reduction of price, the soda formerly got from
kelp or barilla, the ashes of sea-weed. This cheap

H 2

100 TJie Coed Question.

supply of alkali is all-important in our soap and
glass trades, and in a great variety of minor chemical
manufactures. Potash, on the contrary, still con-
tinues to be obtained from the ashes of wood, and
is accordingly imported, at a high price, from
Canada or Russia. If ever extracted from its
natural source in felspai', it must be by an abundant
use of fuel

When the Government of the Two Sicilies placed
an exorbitant tax on sulphur, Italy having as it was
thought, a monopoly of native sulphur, our manu-
facturers soon had resort to the distillation of iron
pyrites, or sidphide of iron; and it has been re-
marked, by Liebig, that sulphur could have been
extracted, if necessary, from gypsum, or sulphate of
lime.^ Cheap fuel, however, would stiU be the all-
\ important condition.

Perhaps the most wonderful mode of employing
coal is in the ice-machine, two kinds of which, of
French and English invention respectively, were at
'■' work in the Exhibition of 1862. By such machines,
we mcty make Jire, in the hottest climate, produce
tJie cold of the Polar Regions !

With fuel and fire, then, almost anything is easy.
By its aid, in the smelting furnace or the engine, we
have effected, for a century past, those successive

^ Liebig's Letters on Chemistry, pp. 152-3.

Of British Livention, 101

substitutions of a better for a worse, of a cheaper
for a dearer, a new for an old process, which consti-
tute our material civilization. But when this fuel,
our material energy, fails us, whence will come the
power to do equal or greater things in the future ?
A man cannot expect that because he has done
much when in stout health and bodily vigour, he will
do still more when his strength has departed. Yet
such is the position of our ;iational body, unless
either the source of our strength be carefully spared,
or something can be found, better than coal, to re-
place it, and carry on the substitution of the better
for the worse. Whether the consumption of coal
can be kept down in our free system of industry, or
whether, in the process of discovery, we can expect
to find some substitute for coal, must next be con-
sidered. The dispassionate conclusion will be far
from satisfactory. .

102 The Coed Question.

CHAPTEE VI.

OF THE ECONOMY OF FUEL.

It is very commonly m-ged, that the failing supply
of coal will be met by new modes of using it effi-
ciently and economically. The amount of useful
work got out of coal may be made to increase mani-
fold, while the amount of coal consumed is stationaiy
or diminishing. We have thus, it is supposed, the
means of completely neutralizing the evils of scarce
and costly fuel.^ It is shown, in fact, by the
mechanical theory of heat, that the work done by
coal, in a good engine of the present day, does not
exceed about one-sixth part of what the coal is
capable of doing. In furnaces, too, the portion of
heat actually used is a small and often infinitesimal
fraction of the heat wasted; and in the domestic
use of coal, in open grates, at least four-fifths of the
heat escapes up the chimney unheeded,

^ See for instance the remarks of Waterston in his Cyclopaedia of
Commerce, 1847, pp. 163-4.

Of the Econortiy of Fuel 103

1 speak not here of the domestic consxim^ption of
coal. This is undoubtedly capable of being cut down
without other harm than curtailing our home com-
forts, and somewhat altering our confirmed national
habits. The coal thus saved would be, for the most
part, laid up for the use of posterity. But even if
our population could be induced to abstain from the
enjoyment of a good fire, the saving effected would
not extend over more than about one-third of the
total consumption of coal, the domestic consumption
being, on an average, about one ton per annum, per
head of the population. Of the other two-thirds,
nearly one-third is used in our iron manufactures ;
and the remainder in our factories, furnaces, and
machine shops generally.

But the economy of coal in manufactories is a
different matter. It is wholly a confusion of ideas v
to suppose that the economical use of fuel is equiva- Y
lent to a diminished consumption. The ve^y con-
trary is the truth.

As a rule, new modes of economy will lead to an
increase of consumption, according to a principle re-
cognised in many parallel instances. The economy
of labour eflected by. the introduction of new
machinery, for the moment, throws labourers out of
employment. But such is the increased demand for
the cheapened products, that eventually the sphere

104 The Coal Question.

of employment is greatly widened. Often the very
labourers whose labour is saved find their more effi-
cient labour more demanded than before. Seam-
stresses, for instance, have perhaps in no case been
injm-ed, but have often gained wages before un-
thought of, by the use of the sewing-machine, for
which we are so much indebted to American in-
ventors.

So it is a familiar rule of finance that the reduc-
tion of taxes and tolls leads to increased gross
and sometimes even nett revenue ; and it is a
maxim of trade, that a low rate of profits^ with
the multiplied business it begets, is more pro-
fitable than a small business at a high rate of
profit.

Now the same principles apply, with even greater

. force and distinctness, to the use of such a general
agent as coaL It is the very economy of its use
which leads to its extensive consumption. It has
been so in the past, and it will be so in the futinre.
Nor is it difficult to see how this paradox arises.
The number of tons of coal used in any branch of

' industry is the product of the number of separate
works, and the average number of tons consumed in
each. Now, if the quantity of coal used in a blast-

' furnace, for instance, be diminished in comparison

' with the yield, the profits of the trade will increase.

Of the Economy of Fuel 105

new capital will be attracted, the price of pig-iron

will fall, but the demand for it increase; and,

eventually, the greater number of furnaces wUl more

than make up for the diminished consumption of

each. And if such is not always the result within

a single branch, it must be remembered that the

progress of any branch of manufacture excites a

new activity in most other branches, and leads

indirectly, if not directly, to increased inroads upon '

our seams of coaL

It needs but little reflection, indeed, to see that

the whole of our present vast industrial system, and

its consequent consumption of coal, has chiefly

arisen from successive measures of economy.

Civilization, says Baron Liebig, is the economy of

pcnver^ and oiur power is coaL It is the very economy

^f the use of coal that makes our industry what it

is, and the more we render it efficient and econo-

^loal, the more will our industry thrive, and our

wox'ks of civilization grow.

Tile engine is the motive power of this country,

3^^ its iiistory is a history of successive steps of

economy. Savery recommended his engine for its

cneap drawing of water and small charge of coals.

But, as he allowed the steam to act straight upon

the "Water, without the intervention of a piston, the

loss of heat was tremendous. Practically, the co.st

106 The Coal Question.

of working kept it from coming into use; it con-
suDied no coal, because its rate of consumptimi was
too high} Newcomen made the first step towards
the future use of the engine, by interposing a piston,
rod, beam, and pump, betv\^een the steam and water.
It was asserted that mines formerly drowned out
and abandoned might sometimes, when coal vxzs
very cheap, be profitably drained by his rude atmo-
spheric engine. But when Brindley went to Wol-
verhampton, to inspect one of these engines, he
formed the opinion " that, unless the consumption
of coal could be reduced, the extended use of this
steam-engine was not practicable, by reason of its
dearness, as compared with the power of horses,
wind, or air." *

Smeaton, the most philosophical of engineers^
after a careful study of the atmospheric engine, suc-
ceeded in nearly doubling its efficiency. The engine
had long been hanging on the verge of commercial
possibility; he brought it into successful use, and
made it both possible and profitable. But, in this
branch of his art, he willingly gave place to that
even greater man, who, after long continued scientific
and practical labours, made the steam-engine the
great agent of civilization. I need hardly say that

^ Fcirey, Treatise on the Steam-Enfrine, p. 117.
2 Smiles' Engineers, vol. L pp. 329-30.

Of the Economy of Fuel. 1 0 7

Watt's two chief inventions of the condenser and
the - expansive mode of working are, simply, two
modes of economising heat The double cylinder of
Woolf, the method of surface-condensing, of super-
heating, &c. are other inventions, directed to economy
of coaL To save the loss of heat in the boiler, and
the loss of power by friction, are two other points
of economy, to which numberless inventions are
directed. And with the exception of contrivances,
such as the crank, the governor, and the minor
mechanism of an engine, necessary for regulating,
transmitting, or modifying its power, it may be said
that the whole history of the steam-engine is one of

economv.

" The economy of fuel is the secret of the economy
of the steam-engine ; it is the fountain of its power,
and the adopted measure of its effects. Whatever,
therefore, conduces to increase the efficiency of coal,
and to diminish the cost of its use, directly tends to
augment the value of the steam-engine, and to en-
large the field of its operations.^' *

The result of these efforts at economy is clearly
exhibited in a table of the duty done by engines at
different periods. This work, or duty, is expressed
by the nimiber of pounds of water raised one foot

1 C. W. WiUiains, The Combustion of Ceal, 1841, p. 9.

bit^ The Cml Q^m^ftion.

liijrfi hv the dxptauiiture of a budiel (84 Iba) of

Duty in lbs.

L7K9w A.vcnii^ jf M :iaiiMphffldo snginflB 5,590,000

17?^ Suitttcun'^ .amuaphuctL* doigme 9,450,000

17~»». W ict'ii impntired daipne 21,600,000

177!) — iTSe^. W^in/^i tMi^mtt wvnkiiii^ eaqMnacvsIj . . . 26,600,000

Lv^dl). Smpiii* impniTod by Comiah ringjnetfm .... 2S;000,000

USX). A^'timi^'Uirr at Cornish <Bi|nnfiB 43,350,000

L'^Ctf. Xvon^vitdyofCaraiaiLtHigiiiai 54,000,000

LS5U. Sxnnmtt iucv of Im» tsagini} 80,000,000

EzL Lesfr dum one tiamireii y^orsy tbien, the efficiency
of tiie eMCtn*? Iiii* bwn increaaed ten or fifteen-fold :
ijiii it netHi horibr be c^siid tdiat it is the cheapness
o£ the pow« Lt atSbcdtf i:ha;t allows us to draw riveis
grom oar milieu to dnTe our codL-pite in spite of
tioods jjid qnicksajidtk to dcain oar towns and low-
Lmdsv and to supply with watar oar highest places ;
and* finallr^ to pot in motioa the great system of our
machine laboor^ which mar be said, as far as any
et>mparison l? poes^ible^ to enable us to do as much
ad all the other inhabitants of the world together
ef>uld effect by their unaided labours.

Future improvements of the engine can only have
the aame result, of extending the use of such a
jK>werful agent. It is usual, with a certain class of
writers, to depreciate science in regard to the steam-
fingine, and to treat this as a pure creation of prac-
ti^-al sagacity. But just as the origin of the engine

* Taylor 3 Records of Mining, p. 152, &c.

Of the Economy of Fuel. 109

may be traced to a scientific work, so it is now
mechanical experiment and theory in their highest
and latest developments, which give us a sure notion
how great will be the future improvements of the
engine, and through what means they are to be
aimed at.

" A well constructed and properly working ordinary
double-acting steam-engine," of the present time, con-
sumes about 4*00 lbs. of bituminous coal per horse-
power, per hour. "A double-acting steam-engine,
improved to the utmost probable extent, would use
2*50 lbs. of the same coal ; " while a theoretically
perfect engine, working between such limits of
temperature as are usual in steam-engines, "would
require only 1*86 lbs.''*

But theory further points out, what practice has
partially confirmed, that the work done by an engine
for a certain expenditure of fuel is proportional to
the difference of the temperatures at which steam
enters and leaves the engine. From this principle
arises the economy of using high-pressure and super-
heated steam, for we have, as it were, all the old
force of the low-pressure and less-heated steam, with
a great addition from the initial high pressure and
the increased store of useful heat in the steam. The

* W.J. M. Rankine on the Air-Engine. Report of the British Asso-
ciation, 1854, p. 159.

110 The Coal Qu-estion.

economy already effected in this manner is wonder-
ful. The very engines which had burned 12 or
1 4 lbs. of coal per hour, when worked with steam at
4, 6, or 8 lbs, pressure, have been found to bum
only 3i or 4 lbs. of coal when supplied with stronger
boilers, and worked at steam-pressures from 30 to
70 lbs. per square inch.'

Such simple changes as the shortening of the
steam supply, the addition of a second cylinder, the
felting of the boiler and steam-vessels, the enlarging
of the boiler, the raising of the pressure, or the
acceleration of the speed of travelling of an engine,
are the simple means by which the self-same engine
has often been made to give a manifold result.

It is true that, as we go on improving, the margin
of improvement becomes narrower, and its attain-
ment more difficult and costly. The improvement
of the boiler mainly depends upon the amount of
capital expenditure against current expenditure.
For the efficiency of a boiler grows with the surface
of water we can expose to absorb the heat of the
fire ; but the more we extend this surface the less
additional economy will an equal extension effect.

So the accomplishment of a new steam-engine,
with much increased limits of temperature and
economy, will probably require a wholly new set oi

* James Nasmyth, in Tooke's History of Prices, vol. vi p. 533.

Of the Economy of Fuel. Ill

mechanical expedients, because heated steam destroys
the lubricating oil which is an essential part of all
machinery, and is even said to attack the iron itself.
Many of the difficulties inherent in the steam-engine
are, however, absent in the air-enginey which pre-
sents a wide prospect of economy, as seen in the
following authentic numbers ^ : —

Actual consumption of Consumption of

Coal per lion6-}>ower, theoretically

per hour. perfect engine.

Sterling's aiivengine 2-20tt> 0-73tt)

Ericsson's engine of 1852 . . . 2-80 0-82

"Sterling's engine,'' it is said, "as finally im-
proved, was compact in its dimensions, easily worked,
not liable to get out of order, and consumed less oil,
and required fewer repairs than any steam-engine ;
still, the advantages shown by that . engine over
steam-engines were not so great as to induce practical
men to overcome their natural repugnance to ex-
change a long-tried method for a new one."

Still, the fact is established, that an engine has
worked at about one-half the expenditure of an
ordinary good engine of the present day. The ulti-
mate improvement of the air-engine will probaibly
reduce the consumption to less than one-third of the
present consumption. The gradual progress of

^ W. J. M. Rankine, British Association, 1854, p. 159.

112 The Coal Question.

mechanical workmanship, and long continued eflForts
incited by the extraordinary profits of success, can
alone lead to such an advance. The. inventor who
can bring a new air-engine into use will reap a
fortune to be counted by millions, and will gain
the rank of a second Watt

But such an improvement of the engine, when
effected, will only accelerate anew the consumption
of coal. Every branch of manufacture will receive
a fresh impulse — ^hand labour will be still further
replaced by mechanical labour, and greatly extended
works will be undertaken by aid of the cheap air-
power, which were not commercially possible by the
use of the costly steam-power. At least three great
employments of the steam-engine are now in their
germ, or scarcely beyond it, which would grow
beyond conception by a great improvement of the
engine. The pumping of liquid sewage out of our
great towns, and its distribution over the country, is
one mode which would return a clear profit of many
millions a year. The steam-plough is a second in-
stance. Its efficiency is beyond question, and the
soil is said to be quickened by its irresistible tillage,
as a fire is quickened by the poker. But it yet
hangs upon the verge of commercial possibility, as
did Stephenson's locomotive-engine, when he had
got it to draw, but scarcely cheaper than the horses,

Of the Economy of Fuel. 113

which had so long been used. Taking the first and
current costs into account, it is yet doubtful whether
the steam-plough works as cheaply as the old horse-
ploughs; but James Watt, to the surprise of his
contemporaries, asserted that steam-ploughing was
possible '^ and Mr. Fairbaim, at the British Associa-
tion, in 1861, confessed his belief that many of those
present would live to see the steam-plough in
operation over the length and breadth of the land.
Now, an improvement in the engine, reducing the
cost of fuel, would at once turn the balance in
favour of coal-power, and its common use in agri-
culture would then be a certainty.

But it is in steam navigation that the improve-
ment of the. engine would have most marked effects.
Any extensive saving of fuel, saving its stowage-
room as well as its cost, would at once turn the
balance completely in favour of steam, and sailing-
vessels would very soon sink into a subordinate
rank.

What is true of economy in the engine is true
of several other important, and many less im-
portant, instances of economy. The extraordinary
increase of the iron trade is a trite example. " This
rapid and great increase, shown in the la^t few
years, has been, in some part, caused by the economy

* Chfiileman'9 Magaaine, 1819, Vol. LXXXIX. part 2, p. 632.

114 The Coal Question.

introduced through the use of the. hot blast in
smelting, a process which has materially lowered
the cost of iron, and, therefore, has led to its employ-
ment for many purposes in which its use was pre-
viously unknown." * In fact, as shown in a subsequent
chapter,^ tJie reduction of the consumption of coalj
per ton of iron, to less than one-third of its former
amount, has been followed, in Scotland, by a ten-
fold total consumption, not to speak of the indirect
eflFects of cheap iron in accelerating other coal-
consuming branches of industry,

Siemens' regenerative furnace is a very good
example of economy, now coming into use. It is
somewhat on the principle of the hot blast. The
current is passed alternately in opposite directions,
through two brick chambers, between which lies the
furnace. Much of the waste heat, on its way to the
chinmey, is absorbed by the bricks, and again given
out, when the current is reversed, to the cool air on
its way to the furnace. Much less fuel is required,
in such a furnace, to maintain a given temperature,
than if cold air were allowed to flow directly into
the fire. The general application of such regenera-
tive chambers to furnaces would require the invest-
ment of a large amount of capital ; and the question
in such improvcTnents, as in the case of the boiler,

" Porter's Progress, 1851, p. 675. ^ (j)^^^ ^j^

Of the, Ec(yt\omy of Fuel. 115

lies between a large initial investment and large
current eocpenses.

The utilization of spare heat from a puddling or
reheating furnace, by passing it through a steam-
boiler; the saving of the waste gases of a blast-
furnace, to heat the blast, or work the engines ; the
emplojrment of spare heat in salt pans ; the use of
small gas flames, or gas furnaces, where large coal
fires were before Used : such are a few of the very-
many modes in which coal may be greatly saved.
In fact, there is hardly a single use of fuel in which
a little care, ingenuity, or expenditure of capital
may not make a considerable saving.

But no one must suppose that coal thus saved is
spared — ^it is only saved from one use to be em-
ployed in others, and the profits gained soon lead
to extended employment in many new forms. The
several branches of industry are closely inter-
dependent, and the progress of any one leads to the
progress of nearly all.

. And if economy in the past has been the main
spurce of our progress and growing consumption of
coal^ the same effect will follow from the same cause
in the future. Economy multiplies the value and effi-
ciency of our chief material ; it indefinitely increases
our wealth and means of subsistence, and leads to
an extension of our population, works, and commerce,

I 2

116 The Coal Question.

which is gratifying in the present, but must lead to
an early end. Economical inventions, in short, are
what I should look forward to as likely to continue
our rate of increasing consumption. Could we keep
them to ourselves, indeed, they would enable us, for
a time, to neutralize the evils of deamess when coal
begins to get scarce, to keep up our accustomed
efficiency. an<i push down our coal-shafts as before.
y But the end would only thus be hastened — the

exhaustion of our seams more rapidly carried out.

Let us remember, moreover, that we are greatly
dependent on the comparative cheapness of fuel
and motive power. Now comparative cheapness of
fuel cannot be procured or retained by inventions
and modes of economy which are as open to our
commercial competitors as to ourselves, which have
in many cases been introduced by them, and are
more readily adopted, perhaps, by versatile foreigners
than by English manufacturers bound by custom
and routine. Even our superior capital will not
avail us against dear fuel, because nothing more
readily flows abroad in search of profitable employ-
ment than capital. And if we are to uphold a
world-wide freedom of intercourse, let us not deceiye
ourselves as to its natural results upon the material
basis of our prosperity.

Of Sujyposed Substitutes for Coa I 117

CHAPTER VIT.

OF SUPPOSED SUBSTITUTES FOR COAL.

A NOTION is very prevalent, that, in the continuous
progress of science, some substitute for coal will
be found, — some source of motive power, as much
surpassing steam as steam surpasses animal labour.

The popular scientific writer Dr. Lardner, in the
following passage of his Treatise on the Steam
Engine, contributed to spread such notions — ^in him,
as a scientific man, inexcusable.' "The enormous
consumption of coals, produced by the application of
the steam-engine, in the arts and manufactures, as
well as railways and navigation, has, of late years,
excited the fears of many as to the possibility of the
exhaustion of our coal-mines. Such apprehensions
are, however, altogether groundless. If the present
consumption of coal be estimated at sixteen millions
of tons annually, it is demonstrable that the coal-
fields of this country would not be exhausted for
many centuries.

* Lardner, On the Steam Engine, 7th ed. 1840, p. 8.

118 The Coal Question.

" But, in speculations like these, tlie probable, if
not certain, progress of improvement and discovery
ought not to be overlooked; and we may safely
pronounce that, long before such a period of time
shall have rolled away, other and more powerftd
mechanical agents will supersede the use of coaL
Philosophy already directs her finger at sources of
inexhaustible power in the phenomena of electricity
and magnetism. The alternate decomposition and
recomposition of water, by magnetism and elec-
tricity, has too close an analogy to the alternate pro-
cesses of vaporization and condensation not to occur
at once to every mind; the development of the
gases from solid matter, by the operation of the
chemical afl&nities, and their subsequent condensa-
tion into the liquid form, has already been essayed
as a source of power. In a word, the general state
of physical science at the present moment; the
vigour, activity, and sagacity with which researches
in it are prosecuted in every civilized country ; the
increasing consideration in which scientific men are
held, and the personal honours and rewards which
begin to be conferred upon them : all justify the
expectation that we are on the eve of mechanical
discoveries still greater than any which have yet
appeared ; and that the steam-engine itself, with the
gigantic powers conferred upon it by the immortal

Of Supposed Substitutes for Coal. 119

Watt, will dwindle into insignificance, in comparison
witli the energies of nature which are still to be
revealed; and that the day will come when that
machine, which is now extending the blessings of
civilization to the most remote skirts of the globe,
will cease to have existence, except in the page of
history."

Such high-sounding phrases would mislead no
scientific man at the present day; but there is a
large class of persons whose vague notions of the
powers of nature lay them open to the adoption of
paradoxical suggestions. The fallacious notions
afloat on the subject of electricity especially are un-
conquerable. Electricity, in short, is to the present
age what the perpetual motion was to an age not
far removed. People are so astonished at the subtle
manifestations of electric power, that they think the
more miraculous effects they anticipate from it the
more profound the appreciation of its nature they
show. But then they generally take that one step
too much which the contrivers of the perpetual
motion took — ^they treat electricity not only as a
marvellous mode of distributing power, they treat it
as a source of self-creating power.

The great advances which have been achieved in
the mechanical theory of nature, during the last
twenty or thirty years, have greatly cleared up our

120 7%e Coal Question.

notions of force. It has been rendered apparent
that the universe, from a material point oi view, is
one great manifestation of a constant whole of force.
The motion of falling bodies, the motions of mag-
netic or electric attractions, the unseen agitation of
heat, the vibration of light, the molecular changes
of chemical action, and even the mysterious life-
motions of plants and animals, all are but the
several modes of greater or lesser motion, and their
cause one general living force.

These views lead us at once to look upon all
machines and processes of manufacture as but the
more or less efficient modes of transmuting and
using force. If we have force in any one of its
forms, as heat, light, chemical change, or mechanical
motion, we can turn it, or may fairly hope to turn
it, into any other of its forms. But to think of
getting force, except from some natural source, is as
absurd as to think of making iron or gold out of
vacant space.

We must look abroad, then, to compare the known
sources of force. Some distinct sources are of in-
considerable importance, such as the fall of meteoric
stones, the fall of rocks, or the heat derivable
from sulphur, and other native combustible sub-
stances. The internal heat of the earth, again,
presents an immense store of force, but, being

0/ Supposed Substitutes for Coal. 121

manifested only in the hot-spring, the volcano, or
the warm mine, it is evidently not available.

The tides arising from the attractions of the sun,
earth, and moon, present another source of power,
which is, and often has been, used in one way or
another, and shall be considered.

The remaining natural sources of force are the
feomplicated light, heat, chemical and magnetic in-
fluences of the sun's rays. The light, or chemical
action, is the origin of organic fuel, in all its forms
of wood, peat, bitumen, coal, &c. while the heat
occasions the motions of the winds and falling
waters. The electricity of the air, and the thunder-
storm, and the "electric currents of the earth, are
probably secondary eflFects of the other influences.
Among these several Tnanifestations of force^ our
choice musty in all reasonable probability, be made.
Now it will be easUy seen that nature is to us
almost unbounded, but that economy consists in
discovering and picking out those almost infinitesimal
portions which best serve our purpose. We dis-
regard the abundant vegetation, and live upon the
small grain of com ; we burn down the largest tree,
that we may use its ashes ; or we wash away ten
thousand parts of rock, and sand, and gravel, that
we msij extract the particle of gold. Millions, too,
live, and work, and die, in the accustomed grooves

122 The Coal Question.

for the one Lee, or Savery, or Cromptoii, or Watt,
who uses his minute personal coiiLtribution of labour
to the best eflFect

So material nature presents to us the aspect of
one continuous waste of force and matter beyond
our control. The power we employ in the greatest
engine is but an infinitesimal portion, withdraw
from the immeasurable expense of natural forces.
But civilization, as Liebig said, is the economy of
power, and consists in withdrawing and using our
small fraction of force in a happy mode and moment.

The rude forces of nature are too great for us, as
well as too slight. It is, often, all we can do to
escape injury from them, instead of making them
obey us. And while the sun annually showers
down upon us about a thousand times as much
heat-power as is contained in all the coal we raise
annually, yet that thousandth part, being under
perfect control, is a sufficient basis of all our economy
and progress.

The first great requisite of motive power is, that
it shall be wholly at our command, to he exerted
when, and where, and in what degree we desire.
The wind, for instance, as a direct motive power, is
wholly inapplicable to a system of machine labour,
for during a calm season the whole business of the
country would be thrown out of gear. Before the

Of Supposed Svhstitutes for Coal. 123

era of steam-engines, windmills were tried for drain-
ing mines, « but, though they were powerful machines,
they were veiy irregular, so that in a long toct of
cabn weather the mines were drowned, and all the
workmen thrown idle. From this cause, the eon-
tingent expenses of these machines were very great ;
besides, they were only applicable in open and
elevated situations/'

No possible concentration of windmills, again,
woidd supply the force required in large factories or
iron works. An ordinary windmill has the power
of about thirty-four men,^ or at most, seven horses.
Many ordinary factories would therefore require ten
windmills to drive them, and the great Dowlais
Ironworks, employing a total engine power of 7,308
horses,^ would require no less than 1,000 large
windmills!

In navigation the power of the wind is more
applicable, as it is seldom wanting in the open sea,
and in long voyages the chances are that the favour-
able will compensate the unfavourable winds. But
in shorter voyages the uncertainty and delay of
sailing vessels used to be intolerable. It is not more
than forty years since passengers for Ireland or for
the Continent had sometimes to wait for weeks until

1 Life of Telford. Telford's Memorandum Book, p. 671.
- Tniran on the Iron Manufacture of Great Britain, p. 242.

124 The Coal Question.

a contrary wind had blown itself out. Such un-
certain delays dislocate business, and prevent it
fron. proc^^g in the n.pid and nLjne-like

manner which is necessary for economy. Hence
the gradual substitution of steam for sailing
vessels. In the steam boiler, indeed, we have the
veritable bag of -^lus ; and thus, though steam is
a most costly power, it is certain, and our sea
captains are beginning to look upon wind as
a noxious, disturbing influence. In a weU-esta-
blished and connected system- of communications,
there is little or no use, and often a good deal
of harm, in reaching a place before the appointed
time. Thus there is a tendency to decline the
aid of sails even when the wind is favourable
and strong, and, unless for the purpose of saving
fuel, a point little attended to as yet, it cannot
be said that there is any benefit to be derived
from sails equivalent to their trouble and cost.
It is certainty tJiat is the highest benefit of steam
communication.

The regularity and rapidity of a steam vessel
render it an economical mode of conveyance even
for a heavy freight like coal. The first cost of a
steam collier is five times as much as for sailing
colliers of equal tonnage. But then capital invested
in the steam vessel is many times as efficient as in

Of Supposed Substitutes for Coal. 125

the sailing vessel. A steam collier can receive her
cargo of 1,200 tons at Newcastle in four hours, reach
London in thirty-two hours, discharge by steam
hydrauKc machinery in ten hours, and return to
Newcastle with water baUast within seventy-six
tours for the round voyage. A single collier has
"been known to make fifty-seven voyages to London
in one year, delivering 62,842 tons of coal with a
crew of twenty-one persons. To accomplish the
same work with sailing colliers would require sixteen
vessels, and 144 hands.^

The same necessity for regularity may be stiU

more clearly seen in land conveyance. A wind-

wagon would undoubtedly be the cheapest kind of

conveyance if it would always go the right way.

Simon Stevin invented such a carriage, which

carried twenty-eight persons, and is said to have

gone seven leagues an hour.^ Sailing coal-waggons

were tried by Sir Humphrey Mackworth at Neath

about the end of the 17th century, aud Waller

eulogises these " new sailing waggons, for the cheap

carriage of his coal to the waterside, whereby one

horse does the work of ten at all times ; but when

any wind is stirring (which is seldom wanting near

^ C. M. Palmer, Beport of the British Association, 1863, p. 697.
' See a curious account in the British Museum, under the name
Stevin, 1652.

126 The Coal Question.

the sea)^ one man and a small sail do the work of
twenty.""

Nearly a century later Richard LoveU Edgeworth
spent forty years' labour in trying to bring wind
carriages into use. But no ingenuity could prevent
them from being uncertain ; aad their rapidity with
a strong breeze was such, that, as was said of
Stevin's carriage, " they seemed to fly, rather than
roU along the ground." Such rapidity not under
full control must be in the highest degree dangerous.
" Nothing could at first sight have seemed more
improbable than the success of the steam locomotive
over the atmospheric locomotive. The power of the
air, which was absolutely gratuitous, was proved to
be capable of impelliog railway carriages as effec-
tually as the power of steam, generated by coals
which were procured at a great cost, and were
brought from a considerable distance. But the con-
ditions under which the force of the atmospherjB
could be applied were so onerous that the invention
ceased to present the character of an aid, and its use
has consequently been discontinued.^

»2

^ Smiles* Engineers, vol. iii. p. 73.

' Plutology ; or, the Theory of Efforts to satisfy Human Wants. ' By
W. E. Heam, LL.D. Professor of Political Economy in the University of
Melbourne, 1864, p. 199. This work appears to me both in soundness
and originality the most advanced treatise on political economy which
has appeared, and it should be familiar to every student of the science.

Of Supposed Svhstitutes for Coal. 127

It is the chaxacteristic of certainty which led
Brindley strongly to prefer canals to improved river
navigations. Rivers he regarded as only fit to feed
canals, and as being themselves subject to floods
and droughts, he characterised them " as out of the
power of art to remedy."* Many of Brindley's
finest engineering works on the Bridgewater Canal
were directed to warding off the interference of
river floods. Yet even his great canal was subject to
be frozen up in winter and to be let dry for repairs
in sunmier, and we could not tolerate the incon-
venience and loss which a stoppage of traffic would
now occasion in our large and nicely-jointed system
of trade.

Uncertainty, again, will for ever render aerial

conveyance a commercial impossibility. A balloon

or aerial machine does not enjoy, like a ship, the

reaction of a second medium. It is subject to the

fidl influence of the wind. Thus, even if an aerial

machine could be propelled by some internal power

from fifty to a hundred miles an hour, it could not

make head against a gale. To saying nothing of the

facts that balloon travelling must be dangerous, that

it is really dependent on the use of fuel, and cannot,

. as far as we can yet see, ever be rendered practicable

or cheap, it is, beyond all this, subject to natural

. * Smiles' Engineers, vol. i. p. 458.

128 The Coal Questiotu

ftncertainty ^vecesmrily precluding its general
use.

Atmospheric or terrestrial electricity has, no doubt,
suggested itself to some as a source of power. The
thunder-cloud, the aurora borealis, and the earth-
current of the telegraphic wire, are natural mani-
festations of electric power, which might possibly be
utilized. But such secondary forces are altogether
inconsiderable in amount, compared with the forces
of heat and wind, from which they doubtless arise.
In fact, they are scarcely sensible, except during
thunder, auroral or magnetic, storms, when they
become destructive, and interrupt our telegraphic
communications. We should no more think of
waiting for a magnetic storm to move our engines,
than Brindley would have thought of waiting for a
mountain torrent to float his canal boats. The first
essential of a motive force is constancy; natural
electricity, on the contrary, possesses all the charac-
teristics of uncerteinty and extreme irregularity,
which are most opposed to utUity.

We meet, however, a constant and manageable
source of force in water power. The water-wheel,
or the turbine, possesses a natural tendency to um-
formity of motion, even more perfect than that
bestowed on the engine by Watt's "governor/*
Water power is, in this respect, the best motive

Of Supposed Substitutes for Coal. 129

power, and is sometimes used on this account, where
a very deKcate machine requires to be driven at a
perfectly constant rate. When an abimdant natural
fall of water is at hand, nothing can be cheaper or
better than water power. But everything depends
upon local circumstances. The occasional moun-
tain torrent is simply destructive. Many streams
and rivers only contain sufl&cient water half the
year round, and costly reservoirs alone could keep
up the summer supply. In flat countries no
engineering art could procure any considerable
supply of natural water ppwer, and in very few
places do we find water power free from occasional
failure by drought.

The necessity, again, of carrying the work to the
power, not the power to the work, is a disadvantage
in water power, and wholly prevents that concentra-
tion of works in one neighbourhood which is highly
advantageous to the perfection of our mechanical
system. Even the cost of conveying materials often
overbalances the cheapness of water power. The
splendid Katrine Water Mills recently constructed
by Mr. Fairbairn are in the best natural circum-
stances, and give a nominal power of 100 horses at
an annual cost of 1,260Z. But Mr. Fairbairn cal-
culates that an equivalent force from coals, at 7s.
per ton, would only cost 1,400Z., and the difierence

is probably more than l>alaiiced by the cost of con-
veying raw materials and products to and from the
mill ; with the possibility, too, of an occasional
scarcity of water during drought.'

It is usually possible, with more or less labour, to
procure water power artificially, to store it up, and
convey and expend it where we like. Those who
are acquainted with Sir W. Armstrong's beautiful
apparatus for working cranes, dock-gates, and per-
forming other occasional services, will probably
allow that the most perfect system of machine
labour conceivable might be founded on hydrauHc
power. Conceive an indefinite number of wind-
mills, tidal-mills, and water-mills employed to pump
water into a few immense reservoirs near our factory
towns. Water power might thence be distributed
and sold, as- water is now sold for domestic pur-
poses. Not only all lai^ machines, but every crane,
every lathe, every tool might be worked by water
from a supply pipe, and in our houses a multitude
of domestic operations, such as ventilation, washing,
the turning of the spit, might be facilitated by water
power.

'The first suggestion of a system of storing and
distributing power seems to be due to Denis Papin,
the French refugee engineer, the same who sug-

' Fitirbaim on Mills and Mill-Work, p. 89.

Of Supposed Substitutes for Coal 131

gested the use of the steam-engine piston.^ In
the Transactions of the Royal Society for the year
1687* he described a method of prolonging the
action of water-wheels by drawing and forcing air
through tubes^ wMch seems to involve the principle
of the boring machines of the Mont Cenis tunnel,
the new coal-cutting machine, and pneumatic and
hydraulic apparatus generally. And it was Bramah,
a second French engineer, domiciled here, who first
showed in practice the wonderful capabilities of
hydraulic power. And so controllable, safe, clean,
and irresistible is hydrostatic pressure, dther of air
or water, that, now our mechanical skill in construc-
tion is sufficiently advanced, it must come more and
more into use. We might almost anticipate from
its wide adoption a perfect Utopian system of
machine labour, in which human labour would be
restricted to the pimple direction of the hydraulic
pressure.

But before indulging in imaginary approximations
to perfection, it is well to inquire into the several
conditions of possibility. To the capabilities of
hydrostatic pressure there is, perhaps, physically
speaking; scarcely a limit, but commercially speak-
ing our command of water power, or hydrostatic
power, in whatever form, is nearly limited to our

^ See p. 85. » No. 186, p. 263, Jan. 1687.

K 2

132 The Coal Question.

command of steam. It is steam that presents us
with hydrostatic power in its most abimdant and
available form. Water power in uniform abun-
dance is to be had, in this country at least, only
through steam, and all experience points to the fact
thaty instead of water being a possible commercial
substitute for steam, it is stea/m that from its first
use has been a substitute for vxxter power.

A brief consideration of the history of the steam-
engine will put this fact in the clearest light.
Though water power had been in use since the time
of the Eomans, a great want was clearly felt in the
seventeenth century of some new power, antithetical
to water power, so to speak, and capable of over-
coming it, so that drowned mines might be pumped
dry, and water might be raised to furnish artificial
water power, where a natural supply was not to be
had. The earliest explicit patent for a new engine
was directed to the raising of water,' and the *' Exact
and True Definition " of the Marquis of Worcester's
engine clearly expressed a similar purpose.

" There being indeed no place but either wanteth
water, or is overburdened therewith ... by this
engine either defect is remediable.'' Hence the
Marquis called his invention a " stupendious water
commanding engine," and truly regarded it as a new

* See the patent of 1631, in Rymer's Fcedera.

Of Supposed Substitutes for Coal. 1 33

frimum mobile which was to overcome the force of
falling water.

His appreciation of the value of water power is
shown by his remarkable motto : — *

^ WhoBoever is master of wei^t is master of force,
Whosoever is master of water is master of both."

"and consequently/' said he, "to him all forcible
actions and achievements are easy, which are in any
wise beneficial to, or for, mankind,^'

Savery had no less correct and exalted notions

of what his engine might accomplish by simply

overcoming the gravity of water. It generated an

universal motive power ; for he said, " I have only

this to urge, that water in its fall from any deter-

Miate height, has simply a force answerable to,

and equal to, the force that raises it,"* and he hints

at "what may yet be brought to work by a steady

stream and the rotation, or circular motion of a

waterwheel," and " what use this engine may be put

to in working of mills, especially where coals are

cheap."

Now during the . greater part of last century the
steam-engine did perform the duty alluded to; it
did pump up water and furnish artificial water
power for turning mills, and winding coals from

* Haxleian Miscellany, vol. iv. p. 526.
' Miner^s Friend, pp. 28, 29.

134 The Voal Question.

mines. At the Coalbrookdale Iron Works it accom-
plished an ineatiaiable service by enabling Darby to
maintain and increase the blast of his new coal
furnaces ; an atmospheric engine being used to return
the water from the lower to the higher mill-pond,*

Had not the introduction of the crank, fly-wheel,
and governor by "Watt, enabled us to communicate
equable circular motion directly from a steam-
engine to a machine, the water-wheel supplied with
water by an engine would to this day be the
source of motive power. As it is, of course steam
power used directly is cheaper than steam power
used indirectly. Water power is now only used
where a natural fall is easily available. Such
falls had in general become monopolised property
from time immemorial, and naturally became the
seats of factory labour, half a century or more ago.
But it was the steam-engine which alone could
allow the growth of our factory system, as seen in
the fact that steam power employed in factories
now exceeds water power six fold. In 5,117textile
factories existing in the United Kingdom in 1856
the power employed consisted of, — '

steam power 137,711

Water power 23,794

Total 161,436

' See chap. liv. ' Chadwick, Report of the Brit. Assoc 1861, p, 210.

Of Supposed Substitutes for Coal 135

The water-wheel, moreover, has, by the continued
exertions of our great engineers, from Smeaton
down to Fairbaim, been carried near its mathe-
matical maximum of efficiency, whereas the engine
yet gives us only a fraction of the power it
may be made to give. The improvement of the
engine has, in fact, caused it to be substituted
successively in many mills before worked by water,
and could its efficiency be again doubled, as is
not impossible, hardly could the best water power
in the coimtry withstand the superior economy of
steam.

The predominance of steam over water is seen in
many other instances. It is a steam-engine that is
used to supply water power for Sir W. Armstrong's
apparatus, as at the Liverpool and Birkenhead Docks.
A handsome and lofty building will be seen near
the Birkenhead Great Float, containing a reservoir
of artificial water power thus obtained. Again, it is
only the engine that can supply water for the manu-
facturing and domestic uses of our great towns like
Manchester and London. Our factories, print-works,
sugar refineries, breweries, and other works find it
a matter of immense cost and difficulty to get a
jlentiftd supply of water from wells and pumping
engines, or from natural sources. And if we can
hardly supply our boilers with water, how can we

136 The Coal Question.

dream of ever using water, instead of steam, in the
cylinder, and as the motive power?

The predominance of steam is farther seen in its
actual substitution for the windmill, or the tidal
mill. Wind-commills still go on working until
they are burnt down, or out of repair; they are
then never rebuilt, but their work is transferred to
steam-mills. Yet the grinding of com is a work
most suitable to the variable power of the wind.
Again, if there is anything which could be cheaply
done by wind, it is the raising of large masses of
water where occasional irregularities are of no con-
sequence, the rain and wind mostly coming to-
gether. Yet the windmills long employed to drain
the Lincolnshire Fens, as practised in Holland, were
at last superseded by powerful steam-engines, on the
recommendation of Mr. Rennie.' Tidal mills are no
novelty. One is mentioned in the first page and
column of the Domesday Book as existing at Dover.
A tidal pump was long moved by the current under
Old London Bridge, and supplied the city with
water. A tidal corn-mill, too, of very ingenious
construction, subsequently existed at WoolwicL*
Not loBg ago Sir Robert Kane,- in his "Industrial
Resources of Ireland,^'' supposed tidal mills to be

^ Smiles* Engineers, vol. i. p. 67. ^ Barlow's Cyclc^isedia.

^ First edition, p. 105.

Of Supposed Substitutes for Coal. 137

capable of supplying motive power to Ireland
Their direct application to machine labour is out of
the question, on account of the periodical variation
of the tides by day and night ; but even if we used
them to pump water for artificial water power, the
tendency of tidal docks, and reservoirs, to silt up is
an insuperable objection in cost. Engiaeers, from
the time of Brindley, have constantly foimd that
there is nothing more nearly beyond the remedy
of art than the silting up of harbours, docks, and
reservoirs. The great new Birkenhead Docks are
threatened with this evil, and a tidal mill and
reservoir constructed on the opposite side of the
Mersey about half a centiuy ago, was soon aban-
doned for a simUar reason.

It will, therefore, appear obvious that if we are to
have a. water power millennium of machine labour,
which is physically possible, it must yet be by using
steam as the ultimate source of power.

To go on to other suggestions, we may notice the
very prevalent opinion that the electro-magnetic
engine will some day supersede the steam-engine.
Such an engine, however, must be worked by an
electro^positive metallic element as the source of
power. Now it is coal or fuel only by which we
can smelt ores and obtain the metal required for
the engine, and it is demonstrable that we should

138 The Coal QueMion.

get fax more force by using coal directly under a
steam-engine boiler, than by using it to smelt
metals for an electro-magnetic engine. After the
exposure of the claims of such an engine by Baron
Liebig,* I need not dwell upon it The pre-
dominance of steam, too, is shown most clearly in
the fact that the steam-engine is used conversely
to turn Faraday's magneto-electric machines, and
supply electricity for telegraph purposes, and for
illuminating lighthouses. And while force is found
to be the cheapest source of electricity, it is
impossible that electricity should be the cheapest
source of force. The electro -magnetic engine
might be found a convenient device for applying
or concentrating force in some particular circum-
stances, but the force must ultimately be famished
by coal.

Hitherto we have considered mechanical force
only, but it is obvious that if coal were used up we
should want some source of heat as well as force.
A favourite notion is to employ wind, water, or
tidal mills to turn magneto-electric machines, and
by the stream of electricity produced to decompose
water, thus furnishing a continuous supply of arti-
ficial gaseous fuel. Such a plan was proposed in
the Times during the discussions on the French

^ Letters on Chemistry, No. 12.

Of Supposed Substitutes for Coal. 139

Treaty. But an answer, attributed to Dr. Percy of
the School of Mines, soon appeared, showing the
amount of fuel derivable to be inconsiderable. The
waste of power must be vastly greater in such a
process of transmutation than in the system of
artificial water power which we have considered.
Besides, if uniform experience is to be trusted, a
steam-engine would be a much more economical
means of turning the magneto-electric machines
than either a wind, water, or tidal machine. We
should therefore only use coal in a roimdabout
manner to generate a less valuable fueL For the
hydrogen gas generated, though in some instances
valuable, would in general be immensely less con-
venient than coal. For equal weights, it gives
about four times as much heat as coal, but hydrogen
is so light that for equal volumes it gives onbj
one five thousandth part as mvAih heat. To c^>m-
press it in a small space would require more fon^c
than the combustion of the fuel itself would fur-
nish, and gas companies do not find it convenient
to compress their gas. Hydrogen too haw m xnnvh
higher a diffiisive power than coal-ga8, Umt it <^;uld
hardly be retained in gasometers or ordinary pi(x%
Even the loss of coal-gas by leakage i^ Haul U) h:
nearly twenty-fiv^ per cent

Of course it is useless to think of m\miiiu\!\im

140 TTie Coal Question.

any other kind of fuel for coaL We cannot revert
to timber fuel, for " nearly the entire surface of our
island would be required to grow timber sufficient
for the consumption of the iron manufacture alone."^
And I have independently calculated, from the
known produce of Continental forests,* and the com-
parativc heat-producing values of timber and coal,'
that forests of an extent two and a half times
exceeding the whole area of the United Kingdom
would be required to furnish even a theoretical
equivalent to our annual coal produce. Practically,
however, there are inconveniences about the use
of timber that would altogether prevent it from
nourishing a large manufacturing system. Wood
fuel is superior to coal in the single case of the iron
smelting furnace, but in most other uses, the greater
bulk of wood, and the large areas of forest land over
which it is spread, necessarily render it a costly and
inefficient fuel compared with coal.

Peat, or turf, again, may no doubt be turned into
fuel ; but, in spite of what has been said in its favour
by Sir R. Kane,* all experience shows that it is
immensely inferior as regards cost and efficiency to
coal. It is usually full, too, of phosphorus and

* Taylor's Archaeology of the Coal Trade, p. 176.

* Percy's Metallurgy, voL i. pp. 71, 72,

> Watt's Chemical Dictionary, Article^ Fuel.

* Industrial Resources of Ireland, 1st ed. chap. u.

Of Supposed Substitutes for Coal 141

sulphur, and thus has not even those advantages of
purity which render timber so valuable for the iron
blast furnace.

Petroleum has of late years become the matter of
a most extensive trade, and has even been proposed
by American inventors for use in marine steam-
engine boilers. It is undoubtedly superior to coal for
many purposes, and is capable of replacing it. But
then. What is Petroleum but the Essence of Coal,
distilled from it by terrestrial or artificial heat ? Its
natural supply is far more limited and uncertain
than that of coal, its price is about 15l. per ton
already, and an artificial supply can only be had
by the distillation of some kind of coal at consider-
able cost. To extend the use of petroleum, then, is
only a new way of pushing the consumption of coal.
It is more likely to be an aggravation of the drain
than a remedy.

Coal has aU those characteristics which entitle it
to be considered the best natural source of motive
power. It is like a spring, wound up during geo-
logical ages for us to let down. Just as in alluvial
deposits of gold-dust we enjoy the labour of the
natural forces which for ages were breaking down
the quartz veins and washing out the gold ready
for us, so in our seams we have peculiar stores of
force collected from the sunbeams for us. Coal

Tha Caaa QmeOiom.

H^Mt aad hat bottled np in the earth, as
i, §ot tKBA cf tbooBMids of yeai-8, and
nam agun hm^it fwtli and made to work for

The amomt of power contained in coal is almost
incredible. In bnniii^ a single poond of coal there
is force deTd(^>ed equivatent to that of 11,423,000
pounds weight £Uliiig (me foot, and the actual useful
force got from each pound of coal in a good steam-
engine is that of 1,000,000 lbs. falling through a
foot ; that is to say, there is spring enoagh in coal to
raise a million times its own weight a foot high. Or
again, sappose a farmer to despatch a horse and cart
to bring a ton of coals to work a portable engine,
occupying four bouts on the way. The power
bronght in the coal is 2,800 times the power ex-
pended hi bringing it, and the amount of useful force
actually got from it nill probably exceed by 100
times or more that of the horse as employed in the
cart. In coal we pre-eminently have, as the partner
of Watt said, " What all the world wants, — Power,"
All things considered, it is not reasonable to suppose
or expect that the power of coal wUl ever be super-
seded by anything better. It is the naturally best
source of power, as air and water and gold and iron
arc, each for its own purposes, the most useful of
substances, and such as will never be superseded.

Of Supposed Siibstitutes for Coal. 143

Of course I do not deny that if our coal were
gone, or nearly so, and of high price, we might find
wind, water, or tidal mills a profitable substitute for
coaL But this would only be on the principle that
Ihalf a loaf is better than no bread. It would not
enable us to keep up our old efficiency, nor to com-
2pete with nations enjoying yet imdiminished stores
of fueL And there is little doubt, too, that a cen-
"ftury hence the steam-engine will be two or three-
fold as efficient as at present, turning the balance of
^3Conomy so far the more in favour of those who
"C^hen possess coal, and against those who have to
iBresort to water or wind.

And, indeed, this is a point which I must insist

'lapon as finally decisive of the question. The pro-

Stress of science^ and the improvements in the arts,

"^Mill tend to increase the supremacy of steam and

^i^oal.. Any mechanist knows that the water-wheel

^^nd the windmill have been brought, by the exertion

of our engineers, Brindley, Smeaton, Kennie, Telford

^iaid Fairbaim, near to their mathematical limit of

efficiency; so that we can do little more than

ixnprove the mechanical construction, and gain some

^xnall per centage of additional power by reducing

tiJkie friction of the machinery. The steam-engine, on

"fclne other haiid> at least equally admits of improve-

xxxent in mechanical details ; but beyond this, in the

144 The Coal Question.

piinciples of heat and vapour, we see dearly the
possibility of multiplying at least three-fold the effi-
ciency of fuel If there is anything certain in the
progress of the arts and sciences it is that this gain
of power will be achieved, and that all competition
with the power of coal will then be out of the ques-
tion. In short, the general course of science and
improvement will only lead us the more to regret
the limited extent of our coal resources.

But let us further remember that coal is now a
pre-eminent gift in our actual possession, whereas
if any wholly new source of power be some day dis-
covered, we haVe no reason to suppose that our
island will be as pre-eminently endowed with it as
with coal.

Among the residual possibilities of unforeseen
events, it is just possible that some day the sim-
beams may be collected, or that some source of
force now unknown may be detected. But such
a discovery would simply destroy our peculiar
industrial supremacy. Electricity has already been
zealously cultivated on the Continent with this
view, — " England," it is said, " is to lose her
superiority as a manufacturing country, inasmuch
as her vast store of coals will no longer avail
her, as an economical source of motive power/" ^

* Liebig's Letters on Chemistry, No. 12, p. 154.

Of Supposed SvbstittUes for Coal 145

And while foreigners clearly see that the pecu-
liar material energy of England depends on coal,
we must not dwell in such a fool's paradise as
to imagine we can do without coal what we do
with it.

1 46 The Coed Question.

CHAPTER VIII.

OF THE NATURAL LAW OP SOCIAL GROWTH.

Before proceeding with the statistical part of this
question we must understand clearly what we mean
by the progress of a country. We must ascertaia
how that progress is to be measured, and when it
may be called uniform.

Suppose it stated that in a certain country during
one year the consumption of coal has increased by
1,000,000 tons. The statement is almost useless.
We learn from it, indeed, that the country is pro-
gressing rather than going backwards, but this is all.
We do not leam the rate at which it is progressing.
If the previous consumption were only 1,000,000
tons in a year, the increase would be enormous,
for it would consist in doubling the consumption.
With a previous consumption of 10,000,000 tons,
the increase, being ten per cent., might still be
great. But on the present consumption of England,
amounting to 86,000,000 tons, an increase of one

Of the Natvral Law of Social Grorrth. 147

miUion is not great, being scarcely more than one
per cent.

Again, the population of England and Wales
increased between ISll and 1821 by 1, ("22,574
persons, and between 1851 and 1861 by 2,172,177
persons, but it increased eighteen for every hundred
of the existing population in the fonner period, and
only twelve for every hundred in the latter. Though
the recent increase was of greater absolute, it was of
less relative, amount ; it was, tnily speaking, at a
less rate. We ought, in short, in statistical matters
to treat all quantities relatively to each other, and
we ought to cultivate the habit of so regarding
them.

The reason is not far to seek. One generation
naturally imitates the earlier one, from wliich its
education is drawn. The son takes after his fa.ther
— the same in body and mind, in passion and in
judgment. Individual variations of character and
career are of course innumerable. But on the
average it is true that the son is as the father ; he
marries at the same age, strives at the same success
in business, to gain the same fortune, to rear and
educate the same family. If aU things then go on
the same, if no deterioration, no new obstacle pre-
senta itself, a femily that reaix a double progeny
of children may expect a fourfold progeny of grand-
l2

148 The Coal Question.

children, and an eightfold progeny of great-grand-
children. And though this could not be expected
to occur in a single family subject to every accident
of life, it may be expected on an average of a great
mass of cases.

There are few coimtries where the population has
ever doubled in a single generation, but the same
reasoning holds good of any other rate. We are
about doubly as numerous as our grandfathers. If
we are in other respects like, them — equally vigor-
ous and enterpriBing, and not subject to any new
exterior obstacles, we may expect our grandchildren
to be doubly as numerous as ourselves.

This is one way of stating the law that men, as
well as all living creatures, tend to increase in an
uniform geometrical ratio. And an uniform rate of
growth means an uniform ratio — an uniform per
centage of increase — uniform multiplication in
uniform periods. The law is true and necessary as
a mathematical law. If children do as their fathers^
they must increase like them ; if they do not, some
change must have occurred in character or circum-
stances.

Such is the principle of population as established
by Malthus in his celebrated essay. Of the moral
and social consequences he deduced from it I need
say nothing at present. They have been accepted

Of the Natural Law of Social Growth. 149

for the most part by political economists. But the
Statement that living beings of the same nature and
in the same circumstances multiply in the sams
geomstrical ratio^ is self-evident when the meanings
of the words are understood.

Now what is true of the mere number of the
people is true of other elements of their con-
dition. If our parents made a definite social
advance, then, unless we are unworthy of our
parents, or in different circumstances, we should
make a similar advance. If our parents doubled
their income, or doubled the use of iron, or the
agricultural produce of the country, then so ought
We, unless we axe either changed in character or
circumstances.

But great care is here necessary. We are getting
to the gist of the subject. Even if we do not
change in inward character, yet our exterior circum-
stances arc usuaQy changing. This is what Malthus
argued. He said that though our numbers tend to
increase in uniform ratio, we cannot expect the
same to take place with the supply of food. We
caimot double the produce of the soil, time after
time, ad injinitum. When we want more off a field
we cannot get it by simply doubling the labourers.
Any quantity of capital, and labour, and skill may
fail to do it, though discoveries from time to time

{

Tlie Coal Questm

do allow of a considerable increase. Yet tlie powers
and capabilities of organic and inorganic nature
always present this remarkable contrast. The
foimcr are always relative to the number of existing
beings, and tend unceasuigly to increase. But
exterior nature presents a certain absolute and in-
exorable limit.

Now the whole question turns upon the applica-
tion of these views to the consumption of coal. Our
subsistence no longer depends upon our produce of
corn. The momentous repeal of the Com Laws
throws us from com upon coaL It marks, at any
rate, the epoch when coal was finally recognised as
the staple produce of the country ; — it marks the
ascendency of the manufacturing interest, which is
only another name for the development of the use
of coal.

The application, however, is a little complicated.
The quantity of coal consumed is really a quantity
of two dimensions, the number of the people, and
the average quantity used by each. Even if each
person continued to use an invariable quantity of
coal per annum, yet the total produce would increase
in the same ratio as the number of the people, But
added to this is the fact that we do each of ua in
general increase our consumption of coal. In round
numbers, the population has about doubled since

Of the Natural Law of Social Growth. 151

the beginning of the century, but the consumption
of coal has increased eightfold, and more. The con-
sumption per head of the population has therefore
increased fourfold.

Again, the quantity consumed by each individual
is a composite quantity, increased either by mul-
tiplying the scale of former applications of coal, or
finding wholly new applications. We cannot indeed
always be doubling the length of our railways, the
magnitude of our ships, and bridges, and factories.
In every kind of enterprise we shall no doubt meet
a natural limit of convenience, or commercial prac-
ticability, as we do in the cultivation of the land.
I do not mean a fixed and impassable limit, but as it
were an elastic obstacle, which we may ever push
against a little further, but ever with increasing
difficulty.

But the new applications of coal are of an un-
limited character. In the command of force, mole-
cular and mechanical, we have the key to aU the
infinite varieties of change in place or kind of which
nature is capable. No chemical or mechanical
operation, perhaps, is quite impossible to us, and
invention consists in discovering those which are
useful and commercially practicable. No d priori
reason here, presents itself why each generation
should not use its resources of knowledge and

material poaaeasiona to make as large a proportioiial
advance aa did a preceding generation.

And it cannot escape the attention of any ob-
servant peraon that our inventions and works do
multiply in variety and scale of application. Each
success assists the development of previons suc-
cesaea, and the achievement of new ones. None of
our inventions can successfully stand alone — all are
bomid together in mutual dependence. The iron
manufacture depends on the use of the steam-engine,
and the steam-engine on the iron manufacture.
Coal and iron are eaaential either in the supply of
light or water, and both these are needed in the
development of our factory system.' The advance
of the mechanical arts gives us vast steam-hammers
and mechanical tools, and these again enable us to
undertake works of magnitude and difficulty before
deemed insuperable. "The tendency of progress,"
says Sir William Armstrong,' "is to quicken pro-
gress, because every acquisition in science is so
much vantage ground for freah attainment. We
may expect, therefore, to increase our speed as we
struggle forward."

For once it would seem aa if in fuel, as the source

' See the chapter on Invention in Mr. Heam's Plutology.
^ Resources of the three Northern Eivera, quoted in tha Qnacteri;
Juurual of Science, No, 2, p. 371.

Of the Natural Law of Social Orowth. 153

of universal power, we had found an unlimited
means of multiplying our. command over nature.
But, alas, no ! The coal is itself limited in quantity ;
not absolutely, as regards us, but so that each year
we gain our supplies with some increase of difficulty.
There are unlimited novelties to make our own, had
we unlimited force to use them.

Such axe the principles of our progress. But I

should be as iU-contented as any of my readers to

rest an argument upon such theory alone. I shall

appeal to experience, and show that some of the

main branches of industry depending upon the use

of coal have hitherto obeyed the law of uniform

geometrical increase. I can show that up to the

present we'^are in jan unchecked course of discovery

imd growth — ^that old applications of coal are being

extended, and yet admit of great extension, while

^new ones are continually being added. And I shall

:iifer that a continuance of the same may be

expected in the absence of any extraordinary

^influence; that the consumption of coal will

^increase at a nearly constant rate until some check,

i^Rome natural but perhaps elastic boundary of our

efforts, is encountered.

iFor the present our cheap supplies of coal, and

omr skill in its employment, and the freedom of our

eommerce with other wide lands, render us inde-

154

The Coal Question.

^H pendent of the limited agricultural area of these

^H islands, and take us out of the scope of Malthus'

^H doctrine. We are growing rich and numerous upon

^V a source of wealth of which the fertility does not

^M yet apparently decrease with our demands upon it.

^K Hence the uniform and extraordinary rat6 of growth

^H which this country presents. We are like settlers

^H spreading in a rich new country of which the boun-

^B daries are yet unkuou'n and unfelt.

^H But then I must point out the painful fact that

^1 such a rate of growth will before long render our

^1 consumption of coal comparable with the total

^H supply. In the increasing depth and difficulty of

^H coal mining wo shall meet that vague, but inevitable

^* boundary that will stop our progress. We shall

begin as it were to see the fiuther shore of our Black
Indies. The wave of population will break upon
that shore, and roll back upon itself. And aa
settlers, unable to choose in the far inland new
and virgin soil of unexceeded fertility, will fall
back upon that which is next best, and will ad-
vance their tillage up the mountain side, so we,
unable to discover new coal - fields as shallow
as before, must deepen our mines with pain and
cost

There is, too, this most serious difference to be
noted. A farm, however far pushed, will under

Of the Natural Law of Social Orowth. 155

proper cultivation continue to yield for ever a con-
stant crop. But in a mine there is no reproduction,
and the produce once pushed to the utmost will soon
begin to fail and sink to zero.

So faVy theUj as our wealth and progress depend
upon the superior command of coal^ we must not
only stop — we mmt go back ^^ X'^

156 The Coal Question.

CHAPTER IX.

OF THE GROWTH AND MIGRATIONS OF OUR

POPULATION.

It IS in several ways essential to our inquiry to
examine, briefly, the increase and movements of our
population, and the extraordinary effects which the
growing use of coal has exercised upon it.

Our examination must be restricted to England
and Wales, or, at most, to Great Britain. Ireland,
if referred to at all, must be contrasted to England
in natural and social condition. Practically and
commercially y Ireland is devoid of coal,* the total

* It has been over and over again asserted that Ireland has plenty of
coal, which only needs developing; but the fact is, "the coals of Bally-
castle in the north are of a quality so inferior that English coal is in
use within a veiy few miles from the pits ; the coals of Arigna are
almost equally inferior in quality ; whilst the anthracite or stone coal
of Kilkenny, from its deficiency of flame, can only be partially used,
and from its weight and density of texture is three times more expen-
sive in excavation than the bituminous coals of the English fields." ^
Thus it is that, with all the large area of Irish coal measures, there are
only seventy-three Irish collieries, of which forty-six are in work, with
a stationaiy total produce (1863) of 72,550 tons of anthracite and small
coal, and 54,500 tons of bituminous coal ! The coal of Ireland might

(1) H. Fairbairn, Political Economy of Railroads, 1836, p. 116.

Grmuth and Migratio7is of our Population. 157

produce in 1863 being only 127,050 tons. And
thus the recent exodus of the Irish people, by which
a population of 8,175,124 persons in 1841 was
reduced to 5,798,967 in 1861, is a fact confirming,
in the negative way, many conclusions to be drawn
concerning the progress of our own population.

Scotland will be occasionally referred to. It ex-
hibits the bright and dark features of English pro-
gress, intensified in degree. WhHe the general rise
S S;otch industry, especially in th. Is of the
Glasgow iron trade, and the Lowland agriculture,
surpasses the highest instances of EngUsh progress,
the poverty and distress of the Highland and sterile
parts, and the emigration thence arising, exceed
anything we have suffered in the agricultural parts
of England. But the want of statistical data con-
cerning Scotland and Ireland would generally oblige
us to give our attention to England alone, were this
not also desirable for the sake of simplicity.

have been more useful if fiirtlier remoyed from the competition of English
mines. The mann&ctnies of Ireland have been abolished by the steam
eD^es of England,^ and it is the persistent error of authors and statesmen
to suppose that Ireland is to find wealth in imitation and riyahy with
England. On the contrary, the pursuits in which Ireland will find
most success are agrictdture, or those handicraft employments in which
fuel affords no assistance. The industrial efforts of Ireland should be
in a GOBtraiy direction, not parallel to those of England, and Sir Bobert
Kane's work on the Industrial Resources of Ireland is in this respect a
great mistake.

(1) H. Fairbairn, Political Economy of Railroads, p. 108.

158 The Coal Question.

The foUowing table exhibits the progress of the

popnlation of England and "Wales for nearly three

centuries back, according to the meet reliable esti-

Tmt,

ntukOm.

JirTM.fctlB
jtaa.

per cent for 10

1570

4,160,321 »

1800

4,811,718

217,132

Sincreue.

1630

6,600,517

262,933

5 n

1670

5,773,646

43,282

1 »

1700

6,041^008

90,454

2 »

1701 i Cil21,MS«

1711 ; 6^2,105

130,680

2 „

1721 ' «;362,760

645

0 >,

1731 6,188^72

(69,778)

Idecreaee.

1741 , 6,153,227

(29,745)

0 decrease.

1751 6,'535,840

182,613

3 increase.

1761

6,730,547

384,707

B „

1771

7,163,404

432,947

6 „

1781

7,573,787

420,293

S n

1791

8,355,617

681,830

9 »

1801

9,192,810

937,193

11 ,,

1811

10,467,728

1,274,918

14 .-

1821

12,190,302

1,722,574

18 „

1831

14,070,681

1,880,379

16 „

1841

16,050,542

1,979,861

14 »

1851

18,109,410

2,058,868

13 „

1861

20,281,587

2,172,177

12 „

' Prefaw to Ceneua Returns cf 1841, pp. 34—37.

' 1701—1861 JDcluding anny, So. abroad : Census of 1803, General J

Report, p. 32. See the Diagram fronting the title-page. M

I eetdmates 1
.tunes, however carefully calculated from the re-
gisters of births, deaths, and marriages, and from
other data, are not true to a nicety ; but they afford
at any rate conclusive evidence that in the first
half of last century the population was nearly sta-
tionary, and occasionally diminishing. About the
middle of the century, it began to grow again ; and
I the rate of growth rose untU, in the beginning of
1 this century, it reached a height altogether unpre-
I cedented in the history of the country. In the
I period 1811 — 21, especially, we find the increase as
1 high as 18 per cent, treble the rate which prevailed
in the previous half century.

In passing, I will draw attention to the fact that

the ratios or rates per cent, of increase show some

I approach to uniformity over cousiderable periods of

I time. The simple numerical increase of population

[ presents no such uniformity, and in late times is

I thoroughly divergent. In fact, as is remarked in

■ the General Report upon the Census of 1861 (p. 22),

the arithmetic increase of the last four years, 1857

-1861, v>as as great as that of the whole century^

1651 — 1751. It is clear, from the mere inspection

[ of the table, that the notion of an arithmetic seizes

I is wholly inapplicable to matters of population and

I statistics. We must look to the ratio or proper-

160 The Coal Question.

tional rate of increase, as measuring progress or
marking the chaiiges of condition of our popu-
lation.

Looking now to the rates of increase from 1821
to the present time, we are at once struck by a very
distinct and continuous decrease. The rate of 18
per cent, diminishes successively to 16, 14, 13,
and 1 2 per cent There is an appearance of con-^
vergency — of a new approach to a stationary
condition.

Properly examined, however, this appearance is
found to be very deceptive. When necessary allow-
ances are made, our growth up to the present time
is seen to be one of increasing rapidity.

In the first place, a population is a very com-
posite whole, of which each part may change at its
own rate. It is in this country especially divided
into the distinct agricultural and manufacturing
masses — contrasted as they are in every point of
nature, history, and social condition. The one re-
presents Old England in its maturity; the other.
New England, already the greater, yet still growing
as in youth.

We may compare the condition of these two great
portions by means of the rates of progress of some
of the most purely agricultural and most purely
manufacturing counties : —

Growth and Migrations of our Population. 161

AGRICULTURAL COUNTIES.

IKCREASE OP POPULATION PBR CENT.*

Bnckmgham .

1801—11.

1811—21.

1821—31.

1831—41.

1841-^1.

1861-01.

Cambridge .

-5

Deyon . . .

Dorset . . .

Norfolk . .

-2

Somerset . .

Sussex . . .

Westanoreland

. 4

wats . . .

-1

-2

A decrease of population is shown by the negative
sign (-) as in the cases of Cambridge, Norfolk and
Wiltshire.

With the above compare the following rates of
progr^ of some of the most important manu-
&cturing and coal producing counties—

* Census of 1861. Population Tables, vol. i. p. xviil.

162

I%e Coal Question.

MANUFACTURING COUNTIES.

INCIUEASX OF POPULATION PER CSNT.

1
1

Doifaam . . .

1801—11.

1811—21.

1821—81.

1831—41.

1841—51.

1851-61.

29.

Lancaster . .

Monmouth . .

Northnmberland

Stafford . . .

Glamorgan . .

In the period 1811-21 both the agricultural and
manufacturing populations were in a state of rapid
increase. To this is due the extraordinary general
rate of increase of the population, namely eighteen
per cent, during those ten years. But the sub-
sgquent rapid decline of the agricultural rate shows
how impossible it was for a growing population
to find subsistence on the land. And when we
remember the prevalence of pauperism during the
period 1811-21 we shall be convinced thaf the
increase of agricultural population which did occur,
was unsound and not warranted by any correspond-
ing increase in the means of sustenance.

The following numbers express the average sum

Growth and Migrations of our Population. 163

contributed by each person in England and Wales
to the legal support of the poor —

8. d,

1801 9 1 1

1811 13 1

1821 10 7

1831 99

1841 6 0

1851 5 6J

1860 5 6

Some allowance ought to be made for the variation
in the value of the currency, but the pressure of
pauperism half a century ago would still remain
about double what it now ia And this pressure was
chiefly felt in the agricultural counties. Mr. Porter,
in his " Progress of the Nation,''* gave a table whence
it clearly appeared " that the burthen of the poor's
rate in proportion to the population is generally
greatest in the most agricultural comities. Suffolk,
Norfolk, Wiltshire, Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire,
Essex, and Cambridgeshire, all essentiaQy agricul-
tural, are the most heavily burthened with poor;
while Lancashire, the West Eiding of Yorkshire,
Cheshire, Staffordshire, Nottinghamshire, and Derby-
shire, which are of an opposite character, enjoy
a comparative exemption from that burthen." This
dearly marked difference prevents us from attri-

1 Porter's Progress (1851), p. 91.

^ 1861, 5«. 9c{. owing to the cotton distress.

* First edit. voL ii. p. 364.

M 2

164

The Coal Question.

buting the excessive pauperism of the time to the
wars, or the high price of com, which last circum^
stance ought to favour the agricultural, at the
expense of the manufacturing population.

The laxness of the poor-laws, the impetus com-
municated by the rise of our manufacturing and
trading system, the demand for soldiers, and perhaps
other causes, seem to have induced throughout the
United Kingdom, in the early part of this century,
habits of umrestricted marriage, which in the absence
of any extraordinary outlet for the growing popula-
tion could only lead to poverty. In Ireland the
result of an unsound but rapid growth of agricultural
population waB that extraordinary emigration which
is not yet stopped. In the Scotch Highlands the
result was hardly less deplorable, or the emigration
less remarkable, though on a minor scale. It is
clearly shown in the following rates of progress and
regress of some of the Highland counties.

INCREASE OF POPULATION PER CENT.

Argyll . .

1801—11.

1811—21.

1821—81.

1881-41.

1841-51.

1861-«1.

-4

-9

-12

Ross . . .

-6

-1

Inverness .

-1

-8

Sutherland.

-3

-2

Growth and Migrations of our Population. 165

A decrease of population is indicated as before by
the negative sign, as in (- 4).

It is interesting to compare the above with the
rates of progress in counties where the coal and iron
trades flourish :

SCOTCH MANUFACTURING COUNTIES.

INCREASE OF POPULATION PER CENT.

Ayr . . .

1801-11.

1811-21.

1821-81

1881—41.

1841-51.

1851-61.

Lanark . .

Renfrew .

Now in England our agricultural population has re-
ceived a similar check. No inconsiderable numbers
have gone abroad, but in general the country sur-
plus population has been draughted into the towns.
Those nourished among sheep pastured hills, or
richly tilled fields, in the quiet village, or the lonely
hut, were attracted to the crowded squalid alleys,
the busy workshop, or the gloomy mine.

Mr. Smiles has explained how the population of
a hill-girt district, like Eskdale, is kept stationary
from generation to generation. " Oh, they swarm
off,'' said a native to him. " If they remained at home

166 The Coal Question.

we should all be sunk in poverty, scrambling widi
each other among these hills for a bare living/' ^

It is indeed true, as remarked by Mr. Eickman/
that an increase of population "may be deemed
a solid good, or a dreadful evil, according to the cir-
cumstances of the country in which it occurs. K a
commensurate increase of food and of raiment can
be produced by agriculture and by manufacture, an
accession of consumers in the home market cannot
but be beneficial to all parties ; and the increase of
population in such case may be deemed equally
desirable in itself, and conducive to national strength
and national prosperity/'

The eflfects of an unwarranted growth of popula-
tion are seen in the poverty of our own agricultural
counties, and in the wretchedness of Ireland and th^
Scotch Highlands.

It is our towns which alone afford the growing
subsistence which is the warrant of an increment
of population. They not only have room for their
own native bom, but engulf the best blood of
the country districts. They afford that unlimited
subsistence, which could alone enable our popu-
lation to approach a constant geometrical rate of
increase.

* Smiles' Engineers, vol. ii. p. 291.

^ Preliminary Observations to Population Abstracts. 1822. p. xxx.

Growth and Migrations of our Population. 167

But it must not be supposed that our towns have
maintained a constant rate of growth, I have
chosen thirty of the most progressive and important
English manufacturing towns^ and summed up the
numbers of their inhabitants.

MANUFACTURING TOWNS (NOT INCLUDING

LONDON.)

1801
1811
1821
1831
1841
1861
1861

Population.

Nameiical increase
in ten yean.

Rate of increase

per cent, in ten

years.

623,000
763,000
991,000
1,362,000
1,763,000
2,220,000
2,679,000

140,000
228,000
361,000
411,000
467,000
469,000

22
30
36
30
26
21

Such numbers alone give us an adequate notion of
our powers of growth. Our manufacturing popula-
tion has more than quadrupled itself in sixty years ;
it has multiplied at a rate equivalent to doubling in
twenty-eight years. When the new is thus viewed
apart from the old, our growth is seen to be that
rather of a new colony, than of an ancient settled

168 The Coal Question.

country whose history runs back 2,000 years. And
when it is considered that this country and the busy
i^ ix. quertion have, been «ig "forA Z
hundreds of thousands of emigrants who populate
Africa, Australia and America, T assert without fear
of contradiction that the annals of the newest and
most flourishing settlements afford nothing so truly
astonishing as our growtL England enjoys the stable
society, the refinements and comforts, the intellectual
and historical renown which belong to an ancient,
mature and honourable monarchy. But she joins
the good new to the good old in a manner elsewhere
unknown. In our spreading towns, in our factories
and fleets, not to speak of our arts and sciences,
our yet living literature, and our constitution still
perhaps changing for the better, we see the great
work which is given into our care to carry on in
moderation for the good of ourselves, our posterity,
and the world.

But, to return, it will be seen that the rate of
progress of our town population has dropped from
thirty-six per cent, to twenty-one per cent. Is not
this an indication that even our town population
is overrunning its means of subsistence, and that
we are now converging to a stationary condition?
This is far from being true as yet; the rates
of increase will probably not continue falling.

Growth and Migratiotis of our Population. 169

But in any caae our industry is divergent, and the
more so, L more nearly we regaxdft in its first
spring. It is the unslackened progress of Durham
and Glamorgan, that most truly represents the
progress of our national industry. The growth of
the populations of those counties has been already
shown, but the constant progress of our great
northern coal trade is still more clearly shown in the
following accounts of the united populations of the
five great coal towns, Newcastle, Gateshead, Tyne-
mouth. South Shields, and Sunderland.

1801
1811
1821
1831
1841
1851
1861

Population.

Numerical increase
in ten years.

Rateofincresse

per cent in ten

yean.

90,825
99,889
125,128
151,487
192,283
238,890
297,752

9,064
25,239
26,359
40,796
46,607
58,862

10
25
21
27
24
25

London, too, a kind of great resultant and measure
of the rest of the kingdom, holds a nearly constant
rate —

170

The Coal Question.

1801

Pomilatioii of
LoiuloiL

Namerical increase
in ten years.

Rate of increase

per cent, in ten

years.

958,863

1811

1,138,815

179,952

1821

1,378,947

240,132

1831

1,654,994

276,047

1841

1,948,417

293,423

1851

2,362,236

413»819

1861

^ 2,803,989

441,753

The appearance of convergency which our popula-
tion as a whole presente is due to emigration. And
this emigration is not a mere adventitious and dis-
turbing circumstance. It is an integral parfr-in
fact the complement of our general development.
The more we grow at home upon our mineral
resources and manufacturing skUl, the greater
demands we make for food and raw materials. And
it is to a great extent our demand which raises
wages in our African, Australian, and American
settlements to rates that attract our population
abroad. The gold discoveries have added only an
accidental and temporary attraction.

Modern Britain does not and could not stand
alone. It is united on the one hand to ancient agri-

Growth and Migrations of our Population 171

cultural Britain, and on the other hand to the
modern agricultural nations of our stock, which are
growing in several continents. Of the same lan-
guage, manners, and bound together in the same
real interests of trade, Britain and her colonial
offspring must be regarded for the present as a single
whole. Our own agricultural area being essentially
limited, the offspring of the agricultural popula-
tion must find emplojnnent either in our towns or
abroad. And the growth of our towns requires
a corresponding growth of our foreign agricultural
settlements.

But it must not be supposed that emigration from
England is caused by internal pressure. It arises V^
rather from the external allurements which the
colonial settlements offer in high wages, iudepen-
dence, and a certain charm of novelty and adventure
not to be overlooked. The Irish emigration of
1847, indeed, was caused by internal pressure, and
is to be contrasted to that stiQ going on, and which
is due to a positive attraction exercised upon the
Irish by American prosperity. So the gold dis-
coveries formed attractions which greatly accelerated
English emigration, and aided the development of
colonies now so important to our trade.

When once planted iu almost boundless areas of
rich country, like those of North America, Australia,

172 The Coal Question.

and South Africa, population multiplies at a new
rate, and manifests its geometrical tendency, freed
from the checks which Malthus showed to be a
usual restraint.

But the important result to us is the secondary-
effect of foreign British population in trading with
the centres of manufacturing industry, and stimu-
lating the growth of our wealth and numbers at
home. Food and raw materials are poured upon
us from abroad, and our subsistence is gained by
returning manufactures and articles of refinement of
an equal value. Provided our skill, our capital, bul^
above all, our motive power, coal, be equal to the
continuous drain, there is no pitch of material wealth
and greatness to which our towns might not attain,
when thus supplied from our foreign agricultural
settlements with the other elements of subsistence.
For the present, it would seem, that our home re-
sources are unweakened, and equal to any probable
demands.

Hence it is that, in our most crowded towns, we
have, in the development of our manufacturing and
coal-consuming system, means of subsistence which
for the present remove Malthusian checks to increase.
Whether our children stay at home, or whether they
go abroad, there is the same addition of useful
labour, in fields of undiminished fertility, and the

Growth aiid Migrations of our Population. 1 73

same inducements tx> a future continued multi-
plication.

The proof that this is the true state of affairs—
that our emigration is not due to poverty and ^
pressure at home, but rather to attractions abroad —
that our increase of population is rather under than
above the increasing means of subsistence — is ap-
parent in many g^tifying facte concerning L
wealth, comfort, and contentment; but it is most
strikingly shown in our marriage-registers. Poverty
and superfluity of population would tend to restrain
marriage, and free emigration would then, at the
most, allow the continuance of the usual rate of
marriage. Malthus, Eicardo, and other economists
of the same period, were too much inclined to re-
gard this as the normal state of society. Population
seemed to them always full to the brim, so that
each ship-load taken to the colonies would no more
tend to empty it, than a bucketful of water would
tend to empty an ever-running fountain. They
could not bring themselves to imagine such a state
of things in this country, that one man should not
stand in another's way, and that men, rather than
subsistence, should be lacking. But that this country
does miake some approach at present to such a happy
condition, is conclusively shown by the late extra-
ordinary spread of marriage.

174

ITie Coal Question.

" Marriages express the hopes and fears of the
country. They go on at all seasons, and at all
times ; but prudence makes them fluctuate, so that
the more and the less indicate the feelings with
which the great body of the people regard their
prospects in the world/' * Every year of depressed
trade and distress leaves its mark upon the returns
of the Registrar-General, in the shape of diminished
marriage ; and every period of prosperity has a con-
teaxy effect The returns, in consequence, axe in no
slight degree irregular ; but, treating the nunibers of
marriages in periods of ten years, we get the fol*
lowing results :—

Number of marriages.

Numerical increase.

Rate of increase
per cent.

1801—10

832,151

1811—20

910,434

78,283

1821—30

1,052,095

141,661

1831—40

1,179,615

127,520

1841—50

1,354,988

175,373

1851—60

1,600,596

•

245,608

The increasing frequency of marriage presente a
strong contrast to the failing increase of the total

* Quarterly Report of the Registrar-General, 1849.

Growth and Migrations of our Population. 1 76

population. It shows conclusively that there is no
such thing as an internal check to population in
England, and that Nature is taking its appropriate
means to remedy the drain from outward attractions.
Wonderful confirmatory evidence, too, is derived
from a comparison of the returns of the last two
censuses, concerning the conjugal condition of the
people. It is found that the number of married
persons increased 16 per cent, between 1851 and
1861, or four per cent, more than the general popu-
lation; while the unmarried women of the age
20 — 40 years, increased but little, and the unmarried
men of the same age scarcely at all. The numbers
are as follows : —

Husbands.
1851 .... 2,958,564 . . .
1861 .... 3,428,443 . . .

Wives.
. . 3,015,634
. a 3,488,952

Increafie . . 469,879 . .
Bate of incieafie 16 per cent . ,

. a 473,318
. . 16 per cent.

Bachelors.

1851 .... 1,198,050 a a

1861 .... 1,201,576 a . .

Spinsters.
. a 1,168,386
. . 1,229,051

Increase . . 3,526 . . .

. . 60,665

Bate of increase ^ per cent. ... 5 per cent.

To complete this chapter, it would be desirable to
present such accounts of the number of emigrants
from England as would quantitatively prove emi-

176

The Coal Question.

gration to be that check to our population which we
have considered it ; but statistics are here deficient.
Accounts of the numbers of emigrants since 1814
have, indeed, been published ; but, unfortunately, no
record of the nationality of the emigrants has been
preserved. The large and fluctuating amounts of
Irish and Scotch emigration render the accounts
quite inapplicable to England; but from the ac-
counts, such as they are, I form the following table
of emigration to the several parts of the world : —

EMIGRATION FROM THE UNITED KINGDOM.

1815—20
1821—30
1831—40
1841—50
1851—60

Total .

United States.

North Ameri-
can Colonies.

Colonies.

Elsewhere.

Total

50,359

99,801

308,247

1,094,556

1,495,243

70,438
139,269
322,485
429 044
235,285

8,935

67,882
127,124
506,802

2,731

1,805

4,536

34,168

49,875

123,528

249,810

703,150

1,684,892

2,287,205

"3,048,206

1,196,521

710,743

93,115

5,048,585

Statistics of the immigration into the United
States* enable us to gain some notion of the increase
of English emigration apart from that of the Irish
and Scotch. In the American accounts, indeed, the

* Bromwell on Immigration, p. 176-

Growth and Migrations of our Population. 177

nationality of the larger part of the immigrants i*
not stated ; but if we divide the number of the un-
distinguished immigrants, in periods of ten years, in
the proportion of the numbers of those whose birth-
place is distinguished, we get the following probable
numbers of emigrants to the United States, whose
birthplace was in England or Wales : —

^ Persons.

1821—30 26,366

1831—40 66,676

1841—60 ......... 176,263

1861—65 203,608

Since the beginning of 1853, the nationality of
emigrants has been registered in our Custom-house
accounts; and the Census Commissioners estimate,
from the returns, that 640,316 persons, bom in
England or Wales, emigrated in the ten years,
between the census days of 1851 and 1861.^

Emigrants are chiefly young men and women.
The following figures give the proportional numbers
of immigrants at New York, and the other ports of
entry in the United States, for three periods of
age : — *

Years of Age.

0—15 22

15—30 50

30—46 28^

^ Census of 1861. Population Tables, toL i. p. xxxiL
^ Abstract of Seventh Census of the United States, p. 14.
' Including, in the American authority, " the small number at older
ages."

178 The Coal Question.

In short, three out of four emigrants are marriageable,
or recently married

' The effect upon the ages of our population is
strikingly shown in the following numbers, which
express the rates of increase per cent, between 1851
and 1861, of the numbers of persons in England and
Wales between the ages stated : — ^

Age. Rate of increase

percent

0—20 years 12*0

20—40 „ 9-5

40—60 „ 160

60—80 „ .14-0

80-100 „ ......... 5-8

In fact, these numbers alone prove that our popula-
tion, but for the emigration going on, would be
increasing at the rate of 1 6- or 18 per cent instead
of 12 per cent

It is in strict accordance with the known prin-
ciples of population, that the great gap in the pro-
creative powers of the population, caused by so
large a subtraction of marriageable persons, should
be filled by an unusual spread of marriage among
those who remain ; and the extent to which this is
happening has already been stated. But are there
no serious reflections that should occur to us, when
made acquainted with such facts ? Should we forget
that we are now, perhaps, in the highest state of

^ Census, 1861. Appendix to General Report, p. 111.

Growth and Migrations of our Population. 179

progress and prosperity that a country can look to
enjoy ? A multiplying population, with a constant \/
void for it to fill ; a growing revenue, with lessened
taxation; accumulating capital, with rising profits
and interest. This is a union of happy conditions
which hardly any country has before enjoyed^ and
which no country can long expect to enjoy.

It is in such a period that a population becomes
accustomed to early mamage, the easy acquirement
of a livelihood, the habit of looking for a rise in
the social scale, and the enjoyment of leisure and
luxuries. Nothing can be more desirable than such
a state of things as long as it is possible. It is the
very happh,e,s rf civili^tion. But nothing U more
gnTvou, Ln the fordble change of ™eh hfbi.., and
the diBappointment of the hopes they inepiie.

Now population, when it grows, moves with a
certain uniform impetus, like a body in motion;
and uniform progress of population, as I have fully
explained before, is multiplication in a uniform
ratio. But long-continued progress in such a manner
is altogether impossible — ^it must outstrip all phy-
sical conditions and bounds ; and the longer it con-
tinues, the more severely must the ultimate check
be felt. I do not hesitate to say, therefore, that the
rapid growth of our great towns, gratifying as it is
in the present, is a matter of very serious concern

HSKI* The Ccel Qaestum,

j& vvi^wn&S' die fiitimL I do not say that the fEiilure
<€ <iair •ftnal-aiiiKs will be the obJj poBsible check.
dbiMif* hm, cr in other parts of the world, may,
fPivflL t^ef >vt tibt future of our mines, reduce us to a
i&ia>>iBttay tHwdiiiKMi, and bring upon us at an earlier
ipie£>>d iht sofferii^ and dangers incident to our
pofisiSciiii. Bm such a grierous change, if it does not
•no<i>e Srf oriPr* mii?t come when our mines have reached

Change and Progress of our Industry. 181

CHAPTER X.

OF THE CHANGE AND PROGRESS OF OUR INDUSTRY.

Our rapid but one-sided progress may be shown not
only in its eflFects upon the numbers of the popula-
tion, but also in the kind and extent of our industry.
In the second half of last century our population,
previously stationary, began to grow at a growing
rate.^ When we consider that at this period the
engine wa3 coming inix) use, that Arkwright's cotton
machinery was invented, that the smelting of iron
with coal was immensely increasing the abundance
of the invaluable metal, we cannot hesitate to
connect these events as cause and eflFect. It was
a period of commercial revolution. It was then we
began that development of our inventions and our
coal resources which is still going on. It was from
1770 to 1780, as Briavoinne thinks, that the com-
mercial revolution took a determined character.*

^ See pp. 168-9.

' M. N. Briayoinney De Flndustiie en Belgique. Bruxelles, 1839,
p. 197.

182 The Goal .Question.

The history of British industry and trade may be
divided into two periods, the first reaching backward
from about the middle of last century to the earliest
times, and the latter reaching forward to the present
and the future. These two periods are contrary in
chanuto. In the e^Ker pJd Briton ™3e,
half-cultivated coimtry, aboimding in com, and
wool, and meat, and timber, and exporting the
rough but valuable materials of manufacture. Our
people, though with no small share of poetic and
philosophic genius, were unskilful and unhandy;
better in the arts of war than those of peace ; on
the whole learners, rather than teachers.

But as the second period grew upon us many
things changed. Instead of learners we became
teachers ; instead of exporters of raw materials we
became importers; instead of importers of manu-
factured articles we became exporters. What we
had exported we began by degrees to import ; and
what we had imported we began to export.

It is interesting to observe the reversal which
at once occurred in several of our ancient trades.
Wool had been for a long time esteemed the staple
produce of the country. We raised the raw material
in plenty, but were so unskilful in its manufacture,
that aU the Acts of Parliament that could be devised,
all the arts and watchfulness of the revenue officer,

Change and Progress of our Industry.. 183

could not prevent it being " run " for tfie manu-
facturers of France and Holland. No eflForts of
the legislature could enable us to compete with
foreigners, and mistaken restrictions only contributed
to keep the whole country stationary. But when
once. our manufacturing ingenuity took its natural
rise, no more was heard of the "running of wool,'*
and we have since become by far the first and
largest wooUen manufacturers, consuming not only
our own raw wool, but as much as we can buy in
Australia, Germany, Spain, and America.

Again, we had during the early part of the last
century imported quantities of fine cotton goods
from India, and great was the indignation of Gee
and other commercial writers at this "finger labour''
being allowed to interfere with our home industry.
No exclusion of such Indian cottons could have pro-
moted the invention of cotton-spinning machinery,
which is rather due to the general advance of our
skiU in mechanical construction. But it is curious
to reflect upon the different state of things now,
and the enormous quantities of cotton we not only
draw from India, but in great part return in a
manufactured state.

Com had been next to wool the most esteemed
produce of the kingdom. When our population was
not one-third of its present amount we were able to

184 The Coal Question.

raise enough for our own use, with a margin over in
plentiful years. This margin the Dutch and French
merchants readily purchased from us and stored up,
often selling it back to us again in periods of dearth.
But as com is not a material of manufacture, its
export . was very favourably regarded as bringing
treasure into the country, and the whole kingdom
looked upon the system of boimties and protective
duties, established in 1670, as a piece of skilful poli-
tical economy. But no sooner had bur population,
about 1761 or 1771, begun to increase than our
imports of wheat exceeded our exports^ and the
inward movement of com was accelerated by the
reduction of the protective duties to a nominal

amount. Our dependence on foreign com, however,
increased so rapidly, and was so odious to the general
feelings of the country, that a restrictive Act was
readily passed in 1791^ This was the first of the
series of Com Laws which twenty years ago led to
so severe a struggle. The effect of restriction is seen
in the stationary amount of imports between 1791
and 1830 ; the increased demands of the population
being met by the enclosure of land, and the improve-
ment of tillage. But the necessary result of pushing
a very limited country like England to its greatest
capabilities is a comparative rise of the price of food,
compared with other articles, and compared with the

Change and Progress of our Industry. 185

food of other countries. Thus naturally arose the
great Com Law Question, These facts are apparent
in the following table of the average exports and
imports of wheat and wheat-meal, during periods of
ten years, in the last and present centuries. The
exports, it is seen, attained their highest amount
about the middle of last century, but were never
large. Our imports are now increasing beyond all
bounds ; and even prices below 405. per quarter do
not put a stop to the influx.

1701—10
1711-^20
1721—30
1731—40
1741—60

1751—60

1761—70

1771—80

1781—90

1791—1800

1801—10

1811—20

1821—30

1831—40

1841—60

1861—60

1861

Average Annual

Exports of Wheat.

Quarters.

107,116 .

112,020 .

116,779 .

290,512 .

378,452 .

272,883 .

203,365 .

101,739 .

110,197 .

82,178 .

37,738 .

40,087 .

79,510 .

157,852 .

71,9891 .

Average Annual

Imports ofWheat.

Quarters.

217

11,513

1,307

110

16,229

96,728

130,423

174,728

568,896

596,087

540,111

560,314

1,077,370

2,892,094

5,031,266

8,670,797

With the above we may contrast the average annual
quantities of wheat sold in the several market towns

* Average of 1841 — 9.

186 The Coal Question.

of England and Wales, in the undermentioned
periods : —

Qaarten of Wheai^

1815—20 1,119,969

1821—30 2,271,858

1831—40 3,675,134

1841—50 4,012,652

1842—51 5,114,176

1852—61 • . 4,849,130

The returns for the last two periods are given
separately, as they refer to a larger number of
market towns than the previous returns. As the
quantities sold, of course, do not include by any
means the whole of what is grown or used, we
cannot draw any accurate conclusions as to the
amount of our subsistence; but it clearly appears
that our production of wheat has passed its highest
point, and must continue to decline.

Such an extraordinary change in the source of
subsistence of the country cannot but be accom-
panied by many other secondary changes. Human
requirements are various, and arranged in a sort of
subordination. A plentiful supply of com, creating
population, creates also a demand for animal food,
for dairy produce, for vegetables and fruit, the home
production of which is naturally protected by the
cost of carriage. Few or no farmers or landowners,
then, who would promptly submit to the necessary

Change and Progress of our Industry. 187

changes of culture, could suffer any loss from the
influx of foreign com. This view was urged, in
1845, previous to the repeal of the Com Laws, in
Mr. T. C. Banfield's very excellent Lectures on the
Organization of Labour : " The farmer and the land-
lord," he said,» "are the parties most interested in
the rejection of our present Com Laws, which make
wheat a profitable crop at the expense of every other.
They ought to be clamorous for their repeal ; for no
one can deny that cheapness of com will increase
the demand for every other article of agricultural
produce." Similar views had been previously ex-
plained in a pamphlet by my father on the subject
oftheComw'

And no anticipations could have been more
thoroughly fulfilled. In spite of the vast importa-
tions, and the very low price to which com has
fallen, both in 1850-1, and 1863-4, we have few
complaints of the farmers' or the landlords' ruin.
Agriculturists are either prosperous, or patient to an
extent not to be looked for in human nature. But
the fact is, that the substitution of new crops and
kinds of culture has been going on very extensively,
rendering the price.of com no longer the measure of

1 Page 53.

' The Prosperity of the Landholders not dependent on the Com
Laws. By Thomas Jevons, 1840, pp. 7 — 11.

188 The Coal Question.

the farmer's profits. An excellent example of the

changes which are more or less going on throughout

the rural parts of Great Britain, is furnished by

certain statistics of the parish of Bellingham, in

Northumberland, communicated by the Rev. W. H.

Charlton to the British Association, at Newcastle, in

1863. Comparing the condition of the parish in

1838 and in 1863, it is shown that the acres of land

imder the plough had been nearly halved, being

reduced

from 1,582 acres to 800 acres.

The area of wheat, indeed, had been reduced to one

fifth,

from 200 acres to 40 acres ;

while those of oats were less decreased,

from 400 acres to 300 acres.

The number of grazing cattle had, on the other hand,
been multiplied thirteenfold,

from 50 head to 660 head ;
and the sheep had increased very greatly,

from 5,102 head to 9,910 head.
The milch cows, however, had decreased

from 460 cows to 220 cows ;
and the quantity of cheese produced,

from 1,120 cheeses to 60 cheeses.

Change and Progress of our Industry. 189

The horses employed in farm-work had decreased
nearly to one half,

from 119 horses to 66 horses;

but the increase in horses otherwise employed nearly
made up the difference, being

from 17 horses to 56 horses.

Of course such changes must be expected to con-
tinue with the growth of our population and con-
sumption, until only the richest of our valley lands
bear wheat, while the rest of the kingdom is given
up to grazing, or as sheepwalks, dairy-farms, or
market-gardens. Under our present system of free-
trade, the farmer will find his best advantage, not in
clinging to old traditions and customs, but in trying
to apprehend the tendencies of the present time, and
select those new kinds of culture which will give the
best money return.

One extraordinary result of the current changes
in our old main industry was disclosed by the census
of 1861. It is a positive decrease of our agricul-
tural population}

PERSONS EMPLOYED IN AGRICULTURE.

1851. 1861.

2,011,447. 1,924,110.

* Fred. Purdy, On the Decrease of the Agricultural Population,
1851—61 ; British Association, 1863, p. 157. Journal of the Statistical
Society, September, 1864, p. 388.

190 The Coal Question.

The decrease is chiefly in the number of indoor
farm-servants, which was 288/272 in 1851, and only
204,962 in 1861. On the other hand, agricultm-al
implement proprietors increased fully fourfold in
numbers, from 55 in 1851 to 236 in 1861 ; while
agricultuml engine and machine workers were for
the first time stated in the census of 1861 as 1,205
in number. The decrease of agricultural population
is partly due to the less labour required in grazing
than in tillage. But the employment of horse or
steam power in many field operations, as well as in
thrashing, chopping, churning, &c. has greatly con-
tributed to the same result. The economy of labour
in agriculture aflfords, in this country, little or no
compensation to the labourer in the extension of
employment, because the area of land is limited, and
already fully occupied. A man's labour saved is
rendered superfluous. It is this that keeps agricul-
tural wages so low; and as steam-power is more
and more used upon a farm, the number of labourers
will continue, perhaps, to decrease, rather than in-
crease. The only relief for the consequent poverty
of the labourer, beyond a poor-house allowance, is
emigration into a manufacturing town, or a pros-
perous colony. In either case, the emigrant con-
tributes, directly or indirectly, to develop our new
system of industry, and to render more complete the

Change and Progress of our Indicstry. 191

overbalancing of our ancient agricultural system.
Such facts, having been disclosed by the census, are
patent to all ; but we cannot too often have brought
to our notice the profound changes they indicate in
our social and industrial condition.

When we turn from agriculture to our mechanical
and newer arts^ the contrast is indeed strong, both
as regards the numbers employed and the amount
of their products. But the subject is a trite one ;
every newspaper, book, and parHamentaxy return is
ftdl of facts about it, and we cannot look around
without seeing in rising factories and works, in
crowded docks, in laden waggons and trains, the
material proofs of our progress.

I shall, therefore, give my attention to the rate of
our progress, and show that our trade and manu-
factures are being developed without apparent
bounds in a geometric, not an arithmetic series —
by multiplication, not by mere addition — and by /
multiplication, too, always in a high, atid often in I
a continuously rising ratio.

Next after coal, the production of which we shall
consider in the next chapter, iron is the material
baj3is of our power. It is the bone, sinews, and
muscle of our labouring system. Political writers
have correctly treated the modem coal blast-furnace
as the invention which has, perhaps, most con-

192

The Coed Question.

tributed to our material wealth. Without it, the
engine, the spinning-jenny, the power-loom, the gas
and water-pipe, the iron vessel, the bridge, the rail-'
way — ^in fact, each one of our most important works
— ^would be impracticable, on their present scale,
from the want and cost of material. Iron, as the
material of all our machinery, is almost the best
measure of our wealth and power ; and the follow-
ing statement shows that, from the time when the
charcoal bloomary and forge gave place to the coke
blast-furnace, the production of iron in England has
advanced at a rate alike extraordinaoy in rapidity
and constancy : —

■•^\

• \

I
\

Pig iron produced.
Tons.

1740

17,350

1788

68,300

1796

125,079

1806

258,206

1825

681,000

1839

1,248,781

1847

1,999,608

1854

3,069,838 1

1863

4,510,040 1

Average increase
in ten years.

Tons.

10,620

70,980

133,130

169,890

477,000

938,530

1,528,900

1,600,220

Averase annnal

rate or increase

per cent.

8
7
4
6
6
6
4

Bate as for ten
years.

113
107
54
73
80
85
53

^ Mineral Statistics. The amounts for previous years are estimates
collected from several well-known works.

Change and Progress of our Industry. 1 93

It is evident that an arithmetical law of increase
is totally inapplicable to the above numbers, since
the annual addition increases continuously from
Uttle more than 1,000 tons to 160,000 tons, the
recent annual addition. The ratio of increase, on
the contrary, has only varied from 3 to 8 per cent,
per annum. In the last period, indeed, 1854 — 63,
we observe a fall in the rate, probably temporary,
and due to the sudden loss of the greater part of the
American trade, in consequence of the enactment of
the Morrill tariiF.

The increasing production of an article like crude

iron hardly conveys a sufficient notion of the general

growth of our trade, because our manufactures not

only expand in the case of each production, but also

Tjrancli out into new kinds of work ever becoming

more diverse and elaborate. When the weights of

sll kinds of iron produce exported are summed up,

"we find the amount increasing from 709,492 tons

in 1849, to 1,532,386 in 1857, having more than

doubled in eight years. In 1863 the total amount

iiowever was still only 1,641,917 tons, awaiting one

f those periodical expansions which is now probably

progress.

The same temporary check to the iron trade is
i^Qore apparent in the following account of the export

194

The Coed Question.

Year. -

Tons of pig iron
expoTt&d.

Increase.

Rate per cent, of

increase as for

ten years.

1801

1,583

1812

4,066

2,483

136

1821

4,484

418

1831

12,444

7,960

177

1841 i

85,866

73,422

590

1851

201,264

115,398

134

1861

387,546

186,282

Our export iron trade commenced but little
previous to tlie beginning of this century, so that
a generation hardly yet passed away saw its rise.
Within a period of sixty years the trade, as regards
crude iron only, has been multiplied 245-fold. It
is vain to prophesy how much it may yet in future
years be further multiplied. Prodigious resources
are now being applied to the extension of the iron
manufacture, and the present activity of the trade
leads us to suppose that any recent dulness will be
amply compensated. A single company, that of the
Ebbw Vale Iron Works, managed by Mr. Abraham
Darby, a descendant of the founder of our iron
manufacture, holds 16,306 acres of land, employs
more than 15,000 labourers, representing a popula-
tion of 50,000 persons, produces 130,000 tons of pig

Change and Progress of our Industry. 195

iron annually, with a capability of producing
180,000 tons, or ten times as much as the whole
produce of the country 120 years ago. But we
must almost tremble when we hear that this single
company raise 850,000 tons of coal annually, and
with a comparatively small outlay are prepared to
increase the yield to a million and a half of tons !
Expanding as it does, the iron manufacture must
soon bum out the vitals of the country, and it is
possible that there are those now living who will
see the end of the export of crude iron ; so rapid is
the development of the trade that its rise and decline
may perhaps be compassed by two lifetimes.

The consumption of timber, as Mr. Porter re-
marked,* exhibits forcibly the comparative progress
of industry. The following table exhibits the
quantities of timber "eight inches square and
upwards '' of colonial and foreign growth, consumed
in the United Kingdom in the years 1801 to 1841,
and the total cubic contents of all timber imported
in the years 1843, 1851 and 1861—

Y^p. Quantity of Timber. Bate of increase per

Loads. cent, in ten years.

• 1801 161,869

1811 279,048 72

182^ 416,766 49

1831 546,078 31

1841 745,158 36

^ Progress of the Nation, 1847, p. 587.

1 96 The Coal Question.

Quantity of Timber.
Loads.

1843 1,317,646

1861 2,111,777 . .

1861 3,061,138 . .

Rate of increase per
oent as for ten years.

80
46

The extraordinary increase between 1843 and 1851
is due to the partial repeal' of the timber duties
in 1847 and 1848. The more recent rate of forty-
five per cent, is but little below the average rate
(fifty per cent.) obtaining since the beginning of
the century.

The amount of cotton consumed is a measure of
one of the largest branches of our manufacturing
system. Excluding from view the recent extra-
ordinary disturbance in that trade, the following
numbers exhibit its rate of progress : —

Year.

Quantity of Cot-
ton imported.

Increase in ten
years.

Bate of increase

per cent as for

ten years.

Pounds.

1785

17,992,882

1790

31,447,605

26,909,446

206

1801

54,203,433

20,687,116

1811

90,309,668

36,106,235

1821

137,401,549

47,091,881

1831

273,249,653

135,848,104

1841

437,093,631

163,843,978

1851

757,379,749

320,276,118

1860

1,390,938,752

633,559,003

Change and Progress of our Ind^istry. 197

No single branch of production, as I before
observed, can give an adequate measure of the
general growth. It would have been better to
restrict our examination to the aggregate amount of
exports and imports had there been any easy and
true mode of measuring/the general mass of our
exchanges.

For a century and a half the amounts of our
imports and exports were expressed according to
a tariff of invariable prices fixed in 1694. The
official values thus obtained have no claim whatever
to be considered the real values of the commodities
imported or exported, and only furnish a con-
venient criterion of the increase and decrease of
the aggregate quantity of goods. The official
account of the value of imports from the beginning
of last century, partly derived from a somewhat
recent and interesting official document,*' is as
foUows :

^ First Report of the Commissioners of Customs, 1857, p. 108. See
the diagram fiN>nting the title-page, in which the divergent character of
our progress is shown to the eye by curves representing the numbers of
the population, the official value of our imports, and the vend of coal
from Newcastle.

198

The Coal Que-stion.

1
Year.

Avenge official value
of importfi.

Increase.

Bate of increase

per cent in ten

years.

1701—10

4,267,464

1711—20

6,318,460

1,060,986

1721—30

6,621,725

1,303,276

1731—40

6,992,010

370,286

1741—60

6,784,409

207,601 1

3»

1761—60

7,826,441

1,042,032

1761—70

10,025,235

2,198,794

1771—80

10,684,426

669,191

1781—90

13,643,418

2,868,992

1791—1800

20,660,760

7,117,342

1801—10

28,809,778 «

8,149,018

1811—20

30,864,670

•

2,054,892

1821—30

39,661,123

8,796,453

1831^0

53,487,465

13,826,342

1841—50

79,192,806

25,705,341

1851—55

116,931,262

37,738,456

63 »

Low rates of progress, varied by retrogression, pre-
vailed tliroughout the greater part of last century.
-Before its termination, however, occurred a great
burst of trade, only brought temporarily to a stand,

^ Decrease.

' M*Cullocli*8 Account of the British Empire ; Darton's Tables,
p. 30. • Rate as for ten years.

Change and Progress of our Industry. 199

by the great Continental wars. Starting from the
Peace we observe a continuous acceleration in the
rate of multiplication of our aggregate imports^
the most recent rate being the highest known.

The accounts of the official values, indeed, extend
only to the year 1855, the system of official values
being then abandoned in favour of real values. But
the increase of our imports from 1854 to 1863, as
measured by their real ascertained values, is even
more surprising.

Tear. Real value of imports.

1854 . . 152,389,853 .
1863 . 248,980,942 .

Increase.
£

96,591,089 .

Rate per cent, of
increase as for
ten yean.

. . 73

We have accounts of the declared real value of
exports from about the commencement of this
century.

Tear.

Average annual de-
clared value of
exports.

Increase in ten years.

Rate of increase

per cent, in ten

years.

1801—10

40,737,970

1811 20

41,484,461

746,491

1821—30

36,600,536

4,883,9251

12 1

1831—40

45,144,407

8,543,871

1841—50

57,381,293

12,236,886

•

1851—60

106,513,673

49,132,380

Decrease.

200 The Coal Question.

The total real value of exports for 1863 was
146,489,768/., showing the most recent growth of
trade to be at an unprecedented rate.

The stationary or retrograde condition of our
exports as expressed by the real value, in the earlier
part of this century, has been attributed to the
restrictive influence of the Com Laws. But the
official values and other statements of quantities of
commodities examined in previous pages negative
this notion. The very unequal rates of progress of
the real value of exports is due, for the most part, to
the great fall of prices which was proceeding from
about the year 1810 imtil about 1851.

I believe that the following numbers more correctly
represent the progress of our exports ; they have
been obtained by making an allowance for the
variation of prices in general.

Increase per cent,
in ten years.

1801— 10 to 1811— 20 ; . . 11

1811— 20 to 1821— 30 48

1821—30 to 1831— 40 40

1831— 40 to 1841— 50 47

1841— 50 to 1851— 60 73

The progress^ then, was slow during the great
wars, rapid and constant from the Peace to the ac^
complishment of Free Trade, and greatly accelerated
since that event.

The rise of our commerce is strikingly seen in the

Change and Progress of our Industry. 201

continuous growth of the port of Liverpool, which
either now is, or soon will be, the greatest emporium
of trade anywhere, and at any previous time, known.
The dock accounts extend over a century, giving the
number, and, since 1800, the tonnage of vessels
charged with dock-dues. .

Year.

Number of
ships.

Toniuigeof
ships.

Rate of increase

per cent, in

ten years.

1761

1,319

1771

2,087

• • •

58 of ships.

1781

2,512

• • •

20 „

1791

4,045

•••

61 „

1801

5,060

459,719

25 „

1811

5,616

611,190

33 of tonna^.

1821

7,810

839,848

37 „

1831

12,537

1,592,436

89 „

1841

16,108

2,425,461

52 „

1861

21,071

3,737,666

54 „

1861

21,095

4,977,272

33 „

The above numbers are not so regular bb we
might get by taking decennial averages, and yet the
rate of multiplication of Liverpool, as a port, has
only varied in a century from twenty to seventy-
three per cent.

202

The Coal Qv/estion.

Accounts of the shipping of the whole kingdom
are available from the beginning of the century.
From them we get the following extraordinary
results : —

Year.

Average annoal ton-
nage of ships entering
and clearing.

Increase.

Rate i>er cent of

increase in ten

years.

Tons.

1801—10

3,467,157

1811—20

4,203,613

736,446

1821—30

5,059,522

855,919

1831—40

7,175,081

2,115,559

1841—50

11,704,796

4,529,715

1851-60

20,233,049

8,528,253

1863

26,738,733

•

Multiplication at a growing rate ! So far is our
shippiQg iadustry from increasing in an arithmetical
series, that even a geometrical series does not ade-
quately express its rapid expansion. The very rate
of multiplication progresses in an arithmetical
series.

But it is, perhaps, the expansion of our ocean
steam marine which most fitly represents our
mechanical resources, our commercial requirements,
and our maritime supremacy. The following are

Change and Progress of our Industry. 203

the amounts of tonnage of steam vessels belonging
to the United Kingdom, beginning with the decen-
nial period following the introduction of steam-boats
in 1814:—

Tear.

Tomuige.

Increase of
tcHinage.

Rate of inorease

per cent, in ten

years.

1821
1831
1841
1851
1861

10,634

37,445

95,687

186,687

506,308

26,911

58,242

91,000

319,621

256

156

171

If we pass over the early period when steam-
vessels were quite a novelty, we find that their
increase, always extraordinary, has been more rapid,
even proportionally speaking, in the last ten years
than in twenty previous years. And the extreme
success and prosperity of the iron ship-building
trade at the present time, is the sure indication of
the future extension of steam navigation.

And when we consider that the system of ocean
steam communication is almost whoUy in our hands
and supported upon our coal, our pride at its pos-
session must be nlingled with anxiety at the enor-
mous drain it directly and indirectly creates upon
our coal-mines.

204 The Coal Que^iofL

CHAPTER XL

OF OUR CONSUMPTION OF COAL.

In the last three chapters I have tried to make
apparent, both from principle and fact, that this
nation, and, in fact, any nation, tends to develop
itself by multiplication rather than addition — ^in a
geometrical rather than an arithmetical series. And
though such continuous midtiplication is seldom
long possible, owing to the material limits of sub-
sistence, I have given sufficient numbers to prove
that, up to the present time, our growth is un-
checked by any such limits, and is proceeding at
uniform or rising rates of multiplication.

Now while the iron, cotton, mercantile, and other
chief branches of pur industry thus progress, it is
obvious that our consumption of coal must similarly
progress in a geometrical series. This, however, is
matter of inference only, because, until lately, the
total quantities of coal consumed were quite un-
known.

Of our Consumption of Coal,

205

We can, indeed, trace the progress of the con-
sumption of coal in previous centuries with some
accuracy by means of the accounts of the Newcastle
and London Coal Trade, which used to be, far more
even than it is now, the largest branch of the trade.
The total quantities of coal shipped from Newcastle
and the neighbouring ports were as follows : — *

Tear.

Vend from the
Newcastle Coal-
field.

Increase as for fifty
years.

Bate of increase

per cent as for

fifty years.

1609
1660
1700
1760
1800
1863

Tons.
251,764

637,000

660,000

1,193,467

2,620,075

16,813,1461

Tons.

279,643

141,250

643,467

1,326,608

11,343,707.

110

111

351

The progressive consumption of London again,
for two centuries, is seen in the following figures,
which are probably more accurate than the pre-
ceding:—

* T. J. Taylor, Archseology of the Coal Trade, pp. 177 and 204, in
Memoirs of the British Archaeological Association, 1868. See the
diagram fronting the title-page.

206

The Coal Question.

Year.

Total quantity of

coal imported into

London.

Increase in fifty
years.

Rate per cent, of

increase

in fifty years.

1660
1700
1750
1800
1860

1863

Tons.
216,000

428,100

688,700

1,099,000

3,638,883

6,119,887

Tons.

212,100
260,600

•

410,300
2,639,883

6,696,170 »

231

2721

We see that it is almost impossible to compare

this and previous centuries, and that the rate of
mvltiplieation is, in recent years, three or four
times as great as during preceding centuries. The
simple numerical increase is now almost indefinitely
greater than it used to be.

As to the total quantity of coal consumed in the
whole kingdom, the most erroneous notions were
entertained even ten years ago. Writers on Sta-
tistics and the Coal Trade, made what they called
Estimates, by adding together the Seaborne, and a
few other known quantities of coal, and then making
a liberal allowance, ad libitum, for the rest.

^ Increase as for fifty years, if continued at same rate as during the
thirteen years experienced.

Of OUT Cormmiption of Coal. 207

The variations in the estimates made by different
authors may be judged from the following extracts
from their published statements : — ^

Tons.

R. C. Taylor, Statistics of Coal, 1848 .... 31,600,000

J. R. Mac Culloch, 1854 » 38,400,000

Braithwaite Pool, Statistics of British Com-
merce, 1852 34,000,000

T. Y. Hall, " A treatise on the extent and prob-
able duration of the Northern Coal-field,
1854 56,550,000

The same, quoting " a particularly careful writer

on the subject of the Coal Trade "... 52,000,000

Joseph Dickinson, Inspector of Coal Mines, in

his Report, 1853 54,000,000

In 1854 was begun the system of Mining
Eecords® and Statistical Inquiry, recommended by
Mr. Sopwith with reference to our present subject,
and carried into practice by Mr. Eobert Hunt, with
the assistance of the Government Inspectors of Coal
Mines, and the voluntary co-operation of the Carrying
and Mining Companies. The following are the
amounts of coal ascertained to have been raised
from our coal-mines : —

^ Mineral Statistics for 1855. Introd. p. vi.

' Statistical Account, vol. i p. 599. This later estimate is sub-
stitated for the one given in the Mineral Statistics.

* Proposed long ago by a Mr. Chapman. See Holmes, Treatise on
the Coal Mines of Durham and Northumberland. London, 1816,
p. 218.

208 The Coal Question.

Tons.

1864 64,661,401*

1856 61,463,079

1866 66,646,460

1867 66,394,707

1868 66,008,649

1869 71,979,766

1860 80,042,698

1861 83,636,214

1862 81,638,338

1863 86,292,216

Total 726,761,616

The quantity of small coals consumed upon the
colliery waste-heaps is not included in the above,
and is unknown. Mr. Atkinson, inspector of the
coal-mines of Durham, south of the Wear, estimated
the waste in hiJs district in 1860 at 2,404,215 tons,
but Mr. Dunn, inspector for Cumberland, Northum-
berland, and the rest of Durham, considered the
waste in his district to be only 834,117 tons.* The
discrepancy of these estimates is so great and
obvious that there appeared in the Mineral Statistics
for 1862^ the following note: — "The amount of
coals burnt or wasted at pits has been so diflferently
represented, and appears such an uncertain, although
very large, quantity, that it is for the present
omitted." We may conjecture it to be at least
five millions of tons in the whole. But the

' Statistical Abstract for the United Kingdom, 1864, p. 91.
« Mineral Statistics for 1860, p. 99. ' P. 68.

Of our Consumption of Coal. 209

uncertainty does not affect our subject much, because,
before long, this deplorable waste of coal must come
to a natural end.

We see, however, that without considering the
waste, the lowest of the amounts of coal consumed
(1854 — 1863) exceeds, by eight millions of tons, the
largest previous estimate of our consumption, that
of Mr. T. Y. Hall, writing in 1854, while the esti-
mates of Poole, MacCulloch, and R C. Taylor, are
hardly more than half the true amount With such
facts before us> we cannot place much credit in
previous estimates, but I give such as I have met
with.

Tons.

1819. R. C. Taylor, Statistics of Coal 13,000,000

1829. Estimate 16,580,000

1833. J. Marshall, Digest of Pari Accounts, p. 237 . . 17,000,000

1840. J. R. MacCulloch, Dictionary of Commerce. . . 30,000,000

1845. Ditto Ditto . . . 34,600,000

I much prefer to reject all such estimates, and
argue only upon the undoubted returns of the
Mining Eecord Office, given on p. 208. We, of
course, regard not the average annual arithmetic
increase of coal consumption between 1854 and
1863, which is 2,403,424 tons; but the average
ratio, or rate per cent of increase, which is found by
logarithmic calculations to be 3*26 per cent. That
is to say, the consumption of each year, one with

210 The Coal Question.

another, exceeded that of the previous as 103*26
exceeds 100,

We cannot help perceiving, however, that the
consumption of coal is variable, and dependent upon
the fluctuating activity of trade. The year 1854
presents a maximum ; for the consumption falls off
next year from 64i millions to 61 J, and suffers no
great increase until 1859, There is then a very
rapid rise up to a second maximum in 1861. We
are uncertain how much the consumption of 1864
will exceed that of 1863, and under these circum-
stances it is better to compare the consumption of
the two years of maxima, 1854 and 1861, assuming
that they are years of a certain correspondent ac-
tivity. The average rate of increase in the interval
is 3*7 per cent, but in our succeeding calculations I
will assume that the average annvxil rate of growth
of our coal consumption is ^h per cent — or the
ratio of growth is tJiat of 103'5 to 100.

This is equivalent to a growth in ten years of
41 per cent., or in fifty years of 458 per cent., or
5i-fold.

Such are the critical numbers of our inquiry.

If we assume the consumption of coal to have
grown to its present (1863) amount, at the imiform
rate of 3i per cent, and calculate its former pro-
l)able amounts backwards, we find no accordance

Of our Conmmption of Coal.

211

with fonner estimates of the error of which we were
already well assured (p. 209).

Year.

Estimated Amount.

Calculated Amount.

1819 . .

. . 13,000,000 . .

. . 18,993,000

1829 . .

. . 15,680,000 . .

. . 26,792,000

1833 . .

. . 17,000,000 . .

. . 30,744,000

1840 . .

. . 30,000,000 . .

. . 39,115,000

1845 . .

. . 34,600,000 . . ,

. 46,456,000

But it is worthy of notice that Mr. Hull, when
briefly reviewing the consumption of coal, conjec-
tured the true amount probably not to exceed
10 million tons at the beginning of the century, and
to be about 36 million tons in 1840.^ Now these
estimates agree well with the amounts we should
arrive at from our assumed rate of growth.

Year.
1801

1840

Hull's Conjecture.
. 10,000,000
. 36,000,000

Calculated Amount.
. 10,225,000
. 39,115,000

Our calculations, indeed, tend to give a result
rather higher than would otherwise be considered
probable, and the necessary conclusion would be
that at the beginning of the century the rate of
growth was less than 3 J per cent., but that it has in
later years been greater : in fact, it is quite probable
that our consumption of coal is multiplying itself
at a somswhat increasing rate, but I will not insist
upon the d fortiori argument which might be
founded upon this.

» The Coal Fields of Great Britain, 2d Ed. pp. 28, 236.

P 2

212 ITie Coal Question.

The following are the calculated probable amounts
of coal used at decennial intervals as far back as it
is safe to assume that the present high rate of pro-
gress existed, that is, to the time of the introduc-
tion of Watt's engine, the pit-coal iron furnace, and
the cotton factory ; —

F]rol)al)]e oonsnmption.
Tons..

1781 6,139,000

1791 7,249,000

1801 10,226,000

1811 14,424,000

1821 20,346,000

1831 28,700,000

1841 40,484,000

1861 67,107,000

If we take the consumption of 1862 and 1853 as
the same as that of 1851, and the consumption in
each period of ten years as uniformly the same as
that of the first year, we easily get the following : —

Toils of CoaL
Probable consumption, 1781—1853 . . . 1,436,991,000
Actual consumption, 1854—1863 .... 726,761,516

Total consumption, 1781—1863 . . 2,163,742,516

We cannot but be struck by the fact that the con-
sumption of the last ten years is half as great as
that of the previous seventy-two years ! But we
gain little notion from the above of the total quan-
tity of coal already burnt or wasted in these islands.
An incalculable waste of coal has been going on.

Of OUT Consumption of Coat

213

thiouglioat the period reviewed, both as regards the
slack burnt at the pit mouth, and the many times
greater quantity of small or large coal left behind
in the pit by prodigal modes of mining, which coal
cannot for the most part be recovered. And then
previous to 1781 there had been a very considerable
and more stationary consumption of coal, especiaUy
in Northumberland, Staffordshire, and at White-
haven, during four or five centuries.

But let us now approach the main point of our
inquiry, and follow the future probable consump-
tion of coal Assuming the present rate of growth,
3 J per cent per annum, to hold, it is easy to cal-
culate the amounts of coal to be consumed in the
undermentioned yeaxs. starting from the a^^tiial con-
sumption of 1861 : — ^

In the year

1861
1871
1881
1891
1901
1911
1921
1931
1941
1951
1961

Consumption at the assumed

rate

of increase.

83*6 TnillioDS of tons.

117-9

>«

166-3

))

234-7

331-0

466-9

658-6

929-0

1,310-5

1,848-6

2,607-5

* These numbers are represented to the eye in the diagram frontmg
the title-page.

214 The Coal Question.

The total aggregate consumption of the period of
110 years, 1861— 1970, would be 102,704,000,000
tons.^ Or, if it be objected that 1861 was a year of
maximum consumption, we may reduce the above
sum in the proportion of 83*6 millions to 80 mil-
lions, the average consumption of the five years
1859—63. We thus get 98,281,000,000 tons; or, in
round numbers, we may say, always hypothetically,
— If our consumption of coal continue to multiply
for 110 years at the same rate as hitherto^ the total
amount of coal consuTned in the interval will he
one hundred thousand millions of tons.

We now turn to compare this imaginary con-
sumption of coal with Mr. Hull's estimate of the
available coal in Britain, viz. eighty-three thousand
millions of tons within a depth ofifiOOfeet.^

Even though Mr. Hull's estimate be greatly
under the true amount, we cannot but allow that
— Rather more than a century of our present pro-

^ The sum of the geometrical series, ia millions of tons,

83-6 I 1 + 1-035 + (1'035)2 + + (l'035)i<»|

or, as is exactly the same, the value of the definite integral

/•no

/ 82-17 (l-035)« dt
J 0

in which the constant 82*17° has been so determined, that

r 82-17 (l-035)«^ = 83-6,
* See page 10.

Of our Consumption of Coal. 215

gress would exhxmst our mines to the depth of 4,000
feet, or 1,500 feet deeper than our present deepest
mine.

I have given reasons for believing that if all our
coal were brought from an average depth of some
2,000 feet,^ our manufactures would have to con-
tend with a doubled price of fuel. If the average
depth were increased to 4,000 feet, a further great
but unknown rise in the cost of fuel must be the
consequence.

But I am far from asserting , from these figures,
that our coal-fields will he wrought to a depth of
4,000 /eef in little more than a century.

I draw the conclusion that I think any one would
draw, that we cannot Imig maintain our present
rate of increase of consumption ; that we can n£ver
advance to the higher amounts of consumption
supposed. But this only means that the check to
our progress rrmst become perceptible considerably
within a century from the present tim^ ; that the
cost of fuel must rise, perhaps within a lifetime, to
a rate threatening our commercial and manufac-
turing supremacy ; and the conclusion is inevitable,
that our present happy progressive condition is a
thing of limited duration.

I may here notice that the exact amount of our

^ See chapter iv.

216 The Coal Question.

stock of coal is not the matter of chief momeDt.
The reader who thoroughly apprehends the natural
law of growth, or multiplication in social aflfairs^
will see that the absolute quantity of coal rather
defines the height of wealth to which we shall rise,
than the period during which we shall enjoy either
the growth or the climax of prosperity. For, as
the multiplication of our numbers and works pro-
ceeds at a constant rate, the numerical additions, as
we have fully seen in many statistical illustrations,
constantly grow. Ultimately the simple addition
to our consumption in twenty or thirty years will
become of moment compared with our total stores.
The addition to our population in four years now
is as great as the whole increase of the century
1651 — 1751, and the increase of coal consumption
between 1859 and 1862 is equal to the probable
annual consumption at the beginning of this cen-
tury. It is on this account that I attach less im-
portance than might be thought right to an exact
estimate of the coal existing in Groat Britain. Were
our coal half as abundant again as Mr. Hull states,
a supposition not at all absurd, the eflfect would
only be to defer the climax of our growth perhaps
for one generation. And I repeat, the absolute
amount of coal in the country rather affects the
height to ivhich we shall rise than the time f(yv

Of OUT Consumption of Coal. 217

which we shall enjoy the happy prosperity of
progress.

Suppose our progress to be checked within half
a century, yet by that time our consumption will
probably be four times what it now is; there is
nothing impossible or improbable in this; it is a
very moderate supposition, considering that our
consumption has increased eight-fold in the last
sixty years. But how shortened and darkened will
the prospects of the country appear, with mines
already deep, fuel dear, and yet a high rate of con-
sumption to keep up if we are not to retrograde.

Doubts have been expressed by Mr. Vivian, Mr.
Hull, and others, as to whether the number of our
mining population and the area of our coal-fields
will admit of any further great extension of our
yield. It is said that underground hands must be
bom and bred to the occupation of coal mining;
and if we consider that many children of miners
may be induced to emigrate, or to avoid their
fathers* occupation on account of its hardship and
danger, there may be a positive lack of hands.
Facts, however, utterly negative such a notion. The
census returns show the number of coal-miners to
have been —

In 1851 183,389

And in 1861 246,613

218 The Coal Questwii.

The increafie is at the rate of 34*4 per cent in
ten years, or about 3 per cent per annum, which
accords well with the rate of increase of coal
raised, if we remember that the use of machinery,
and the increased investment of capital in coal
mining, enlists greater resources and involves greater
cost than is expressed in the mere number of
miners.

The notion, again, that there is anything in the
area or condition of our coal-fields to prevent a
present extension of the yield, is completely con-
tradicted by accounts of the number of collieries
existing in the United Kingdom.*

Tear. Number of OolUeries.

1854 2,397

1865 2,613

1856 2,829

1857 2,867

1858 2,958

1859 2,949

1860 3,009

1861 3,025

1862 3,088

1863 3,180

There is a slight decrease in 1859, probably due
to the relapse of trade after the crisis of 1857,
and the fall of the price of coal in the London
market But the general increase is at the rate of

* Mineral Statistics, passim.

Of our Consumption of Coal. 219

37 per cent, in ten years, or 3*1 per cent
per annum. And if we consider that new pits
opened are deeper and larger concerns than the
old pits laid in, and capable of much larger yields,
we must allow that the coal-owners, at least, both
expect and are prepared to meet a largely in-
creased demand for a good many years to come.
But we should remember that the more rapid and
continued our present expansion, the shorter must
be its continuance.

220 The Coal Questicm.

CHAPTER XII.

OF THE EXPORT OF COAL.

It has been suggested by many random thinkers
that when our coal is done here, we may import it
as we import so many other raw materials fix)m
abroad. Mr. Hull has clearly expressed such
a notion concerning the importation of coaL ''I
can conceive/' he says>* "the coal-fields of this
country so far exhausted, that the daughter in her
maturity shall be able to pay back to the mother
more than she herself received. May we not look
forward to a time when those * water-lanes * which
both dissever and unite the old and new world,
shall be trod by keels laden with the coal produce
of America for the ports of Britain? and in such
a traffic there will be abundant use for vessels as
capacious and swift as the Great Eastern."

I am sorry to say, however, that the least ac-
quaintance with the principles of trade, and the
particular circumstances of our trade, furnishes

1 Coal-Fields i)f Great Britain, 2d ed. p. 240.

Of the Export of Coal.

221

a complete negative to all aueh notions. WJtile the
export of coal is a vast and growing branch of
our trade, a reversal of the trade, and a future
return current of coal is a commercial impossibility
and absurdity.

But why, it may be asked, can we now export
millions of tons of coal, and distribute them to all
the ports of the globe, and yet cannot hope to bring
back oui" lost riches in the improved vessels of the
future ? We have been able to reverse the woollen,
linen and cotton trades ; to import the copper and
tin and lead ores, which we used to draw from our
own veins; to buy our supplies of food — wheat,
dairy produce, butcher's meat, and eggs from
abroad ; and, even in such a bulky material aa
timber, to replace our own oak, and elm and beech,
by the deal and pine, mahogany and teak, of distant
forests. If by our manufacturing skill we can thus
successively reverse eveiy great trade, buying raw
materials with finished goods, instead of finished
goods with raw materials, why not also reverse the
coal-trade? Is not Free Trade the sheet anchor
that will never fail us ? Unfortunately not. There
is a false step of analogy in such reasoning. Mark
what accompanies the reversal of each branch of
commerce — it is the increased employment of coal,
and coalniriven labour at home, in the smelting-

222 The Coal Question.

furnace or the factory. The reversal of every other
branch of trade is the work of coal, and the coal-
trade cannot reverse itself And the facts which
may be adduced concerning the coal-export trade,
so strikingly iUustrate the importance of our coal-
mines JL maritime «>d eomme^ position
that I shaU give, at some length, arguments which
demonstrate, more than sufficiently, the impossibility
of importing coaL

Trade is manifestiy reciprocal, aad free trade only
allows the development of any peculiar excellence,
or advantage, and the exchange of the products for
those more easily procured elsewhere. One most
peculiar advantage is the force which coal, skilfully
used, places at our disposal. It is our last great
resource— the one kind of wealth by the sufficient
employment of which we might reverse every other
trade, draw every other material from abroad untQ
the kingdom was one immense Manchester, or one
expanse of " Black Country." But take away that
resource, and our expectations from free trade must
be of a very minor character. *' Easy access to the
raw material," said Mr. Gladstone, " and abundant
supplies of fuel lead to the creation of manufactures.
Put these two conditions together, and you have the
combination which makes South Lancashire a busy
manufacturing county, with the great town of

Of the Export of Coal 223

Liverpool behind it." But observe that the fuel of
South Lancashire is a condition as well as the raw
material from abroad.

The truth is, of course, that if coal, as well as
other raw materials, were found abroad, in Pennsyl-
vania, Prussia, New South Wales, or Brazil, the
whole cost of freight would be a premium upon
establishing the system of coal-supported industry
on the spot. Even the narrow seas of St. George
and the English Channels are impassable by coal-
driven industry. Ireland, especiaUy Dublin, ha«
drawn coal from Whitehaven time out of mind, for
domestic purposes, and local manufactures. But the
practical non-existence of coal-mines in Ireland has
rendered it impossible for any branch of manufacture
consuming much coal to exist there. If a work paid
at all in Ireland, there must be a margin of profit in
transferring the work to an English coal-field. Simi-

upon the coal-trade of France, that no great branch
of coal-consuming industry could ever arise in
France upon English coal.

" We cannot expect,^' says the reporter, M. Eouher,
" to make foreign coal the basis of a great branch of
industry. Coal is a cumbersome commodity, and its
cost is doubled or tripled by lading and unlading,

^ Situation de I'Industrie Houill^re en 1859, p. 8.

226

The Coal Question.

position renders any more accurate calculationB
superfluous.

But it is asked, How is a large export trade of
coal possible, if an import trade is commercially im-
possible? This trade is the most weighty and
wide-spread branch of trade in the world. Taking
the Mineral Statistics for 1862, we notice with some
wonder that shipments of coal, in amounts from five
tons up to 482,179 tons, are made to the following
numbers of ports in the several countries :—

Na of Port%

France 122

Denmai^ 135

Norway 60

Sweden 37

Russia 25

Austria 7

Germany 54

Prussia 17

Holland 24

Belgium 7

Spain 36

Portugal 8

Italy 18

Mediterranean ... 18

Greece 5

Turkey 17

No. of Ports

Africa 22

Australia . . .

East Indies . . .

West Indies . .

North America

South America

Channel Islands

Heligoland . . .

Iceland . . .

Azores . . .

Canaries . . .

Madeira . . .

Ascension . .

St. Helena . .

y <

. 1

Falkland Islands

. 1

New Zealand .

Sandwich Islan

ds.

Number of Coal-Ports in Europe 580

Ditto Ditto elsewhere 203

Total number of Coal-Ports 783

Of the Export of Coal. 227

In short, excluding some of the extremely distant
North Pacific ports, it may be said that British coal
is bought and consumed in every considerable port
in the world. It competes on equal terms and gives
the price to native coal or other fuel, in nearly all
maritime parts of the world. This extraordinary
fact is partly due to the unrivalled excellence of
Newcastle and Welsh steam-coals, and the cheapness
with which they can be put on board ship. But it
is mainly due to the fact that coal is carried as
ballast, or makeweight, and is subject to the low
rates of back-carriage.

The subject of the variation of freights and their
influence on the currents of trade is a very curious
one, but has been so overlooked by writers on trade
and economy, that I may be pardoned giving a few
illustrations of its nature and importance.

Whether the mode of conveyance be by vessel,
canal-boat, waggon, carriage or pack-horse, the
vehicle is always required to return back to the
place whence it started. The whole gains of a trip
must on the average pay all expenses and leave
a margin for profit, but it is immaterial whether
the necessary fare or freight-charges be paid on
the whole, or any part of the journey. Usually,
a hackney coach, post-chaise, or canal-boat starts
full, upon its outward trip, without calculating

Q 2

228 The Coal Question.

upon any return fare. In hackney-coacli regula-
tions the return fare is usually fixed at half the
chief fare, but in the case of post-chaises, canal-
boats, and perhaps some other conveyances, the
return fare is usually the perquisite of the drivers.
In the old mode of pack-horse conveyance the same
was probably the case.

The advantage of gaining something by a return
journey is so obvious that journeys are often planned
to allow of profitable return freights. For instance,
in the days of pack-horse conveyance, Sir Francis
WiUoughby built Wollaton Hall, in 1580, of stone
brought on horseback from Ancaster in Lincoln-
shire, thirty-five miles away, but it was arranged
that the trains of pack-horses should load back with
coal, which was taken in exchange for the stone.
And when efforts were made at the beginning of
this century to bring Staffordshire coal to London
in order to destroy the previous monopoly of the
northern coal-owners, it was expected that the
expense of canal conveyance would be reduced by
the back carriage of manure from London thirty or
forty miles up the country, and of flints all the way
from Harefield to the Potteries.^

The railway tolls on goods traffic, again, are not
fixed at an uniform rate per ton, or per square foot,

* Second Report ou the Coal-Trade, 1800, p. 22.

0/ the Export of Coal 229

as might seem most fair and simple, but are adjusted
in a complicated tariff so as to encourage as large
a traffic as possible and give the best return. And
one chief principle of this is to encourage back traffic
by low or almost nominal rates. Trucks carrying
various materials into towns may be used to carry
manures and refuse out. Waggons carrying coals
in one direction may carry back ores, slates, bricks,
building-stone, flints, limestone, &c.

But it is in over-sea conveyance that we find the
most important instances of the arrangement of
freights.

In the year 1325 a vessel is recorded to have
brought com from France to Newcastle and to have
returned laden with coal. This is one of the earliest
notices of the coal-trade, but it furnishes the exact
t5^e of what it has ever since been, a simple ex-
change of cargoes. And King Charles seems to have
been intelligently aware of the reciprocal nature of
the coal-trade when at Oxford, in November, 1643, he
wrote to the Marquis of Newcastle to send a vessel
full of coals to Holland and get much-needed arms
in return.^

The following is perhaps the most remarkable
example of an exchange of freight : — " In Cornwall
there exist mines of copper and of tin, but none of

^ Brand's History of Newcastle, vol. iL p. 286.

230 The Coal Question.

coaJ. The copper ore, which requires the largest
quantity of fuel for its reduction, is conveyed by
ships to the coal-fields of Wales, and is smelted at
Swansea, whilst the vessels which convey it take
back cargoes of coal to supply the steam-engines for
draining the mines, and to smelt the tin, which
requires a much less quantity of fuel for that
purpose/'' In this way the copper-smelting trade
has been carried across an arm of the sea and settled
in a place where there is no copper ore, by the joint
attraction of cheap fuel and gratuitous carriage.
Vessels must have conveyed coals to the Cornish
engines whether they brought back ores or not, and
to carry coals for copper smelting too would require
a second fleet of vessels.

The whole coasting trade of the British coasts is,
and always has been, greatly dependent on coal.
Coasters going to any point of the coast to bring
away slates, stone, lime, agricultural produce, &c.
go out from Liverpool, Cardiff*, the Clyde, Newcastle,
or other large ports, with a cargo of coals, which
everywhere meets a ready sale. Double freights are
thus ensured.

In many cases a more complicated circle of traffic
is established. Vessels bringing iron from Cardiff
to Liverpool, on its way to America, often go on

^ Babbage in Barlow's Cyclopaedia, 1851, p. 65.

Of the Export of Coal. 231

with Lancashire coal to Ulverston, and return to
Cardiff with the haematite ores required for mixture
with the Welsh argillaceous ores. Vessels, again,
carrjdng slates or stone to Bristol from the Welsh
quarries often take steam-coal to Liverpool and
return to the Welsh coast with bituminous coal
for household use, the difference of quality being
sufficient to establish an exchange trade. By such
natural arrangements, not only are the great currents

of industrial traffic bound together into one profit-

•

able whole, but coal is supplied cheaply to all parts
of the coast, where it is landed at the nearest con-
venient place to a village, or group of villages, and
retailed from a central coal-yard. The household
coal, with smith's small coal, culm for lime-burning,
draining-tiles, and a few other articles, form the
only common and general coasting cargoes. On the
other hand, whenever there is a great preponderance
of freight in one direction the shipping must neces-
sarily return empty like the railway coal- waggons
from London. The sailing or steam-colliers which
supply the London market not only have no out-
ward freight as a usual thing, but they have to
purchase ballast in the Thames and discharge it in
the Tyne. The baUast-wharfs of the Tyne are often
mentioned in the very early history of Newcastle,
and the heaps of gravel, and stones, and rubbish

232 The Coal Question.

drawn from the ships have grown from those days
to these.

" To carry on the coasting trade in coal to London,
10,000 tons of gravel are weekly supplied in the
Thames, and establishments in the North are
actually paid for discharging and conveying it to
a convenient place of deposit."^

At one period of his life, George Stephenson, as
Mr. Smiles tells us in his interesting ' Lives of the
Engineers,'* was brakesman to the fixed engine
which hauled up the ballast upon the heap, "a
monstrous accumulation of earth, chalk, and Thames
mud, already laid there to form a puzzle for future
antiquarians." And Stephenson often earned extra
wages in the evening by taking a turn at heaving
the ballast out of the collier vessels, while his engine
was taken in charge by his friend Fairbaim.

In the foreign trade the influence of freights is
far more distinct and important. A ship is often
chartered for a specified voyage out and home,
freight being provided both ways, but more com-
monly the homeward freight is the chief object the
British shipowner aims at, and he sends the ship
out often at a loss upon the outward passage, de-
pending upon the captaia or foreign agents to find

^ Dunn on the Winning and Working of Coal Mines, p. 338.
^ Vol. iii. pp. 38—41.

Of the Export of Coal. 233

a profitable home cargo. This important circum-
stance concerning the shipping and trading interests
has often been alluded to, in pamphlets, speeches, or
parliamentary reports. Dr. Buckland, for instance,
thus explained the curious fact that Netherland coal
was exported to America and avoided France, so
much in want of it for her manufactures, by attri-
buting it to the want of back carriage.* Mr.
T. Y. Hall, again, stated clearly : — " The owners
of vessels trading between England and France
find that coal answers the purpose of ballast when
other goods cannot be obtained at remunerative
freights.^'^ But the most distinct statement is
in a pamphlet called forth by Sir Eobert Peel's
proposal, in 1842, to revive the export tax on
coal.^

" The proposed duty would produce also an in-
direct but injurious effect upon the importation of
the raw materials of manufactures into this country
at the lowest cost. It is well known that most of
these articles are of a bulky nature ; it is important
to reduce the expense of freight upon them, and
this the present facility for exporting coal secures to

* Report on the Coal-Trade, 1830.

2 Trans. N. of England Institute of Mining Engineers, voL vL
p. 106.

' Observations on the proposed Duties on the Exportation of Coals.
London, 1842, pp. 14, 15.

234 The Coal Question,

a considerable degree, being an article that provides
an outward freight to a ship. This is peculiarly
illustrated in the Baltic, from whence tallow, hemp,
flax, and timber, articles of low value, but great
bulk, constitute the objects of imports, while our
principal articles of export axe indigo, cochineal
dyes, drugs, gums, &c. articles of great value, but
small bulk ; so that it is necessary to have some
compensating article of low value for our own ex-
portation, to equalize and reduce the rate of freight.
The same reasoning applies to our imports from the
Mediterranean, and indeed most places of our in-
tercourse from whence we derive our raw materials ;
while the export of common goods, such as anchors,
chaiQs, and other heavy commodities, of which whole
cargoes can never be made up, has materially in-
creased at Newcastle and Sunderland since the
facility of shipment of coal by exporting ships has
been provided."

In British trade, especially under the present
free-trade policy, there is a great preponderance of
homeward cargoes. Our imports consist of bulky
raw materials and food. Nearly the whole of the
com, fruits, live stock, provisions, sugar, cojffee, tea,
tobacco, spirits, are consumed here. Timber, hemp,
guano, hides, bones, with dye and tan materials, such
as logwood, iadigo, valonia, are cither consumed

Of the Export of Coal. 235

here, or contribute little to the bulk of our exports.
Cotton, silk, wool, and flax are either used up in this
country, or returned of a smaller bulk. Our exports
of cast and wrought iron, hardwares, and general
manufactures are rather heavy than bulky, and of a
far higher value than the imports proportionally to
the bidk.

A large part of our shipping would thus have to
leave our ports half empty, or in ballast, unless
there were some makeweight or natural supply of
bulky cargo as back carriage.

Salt to some extent supplies the Liverpool ship-
owners with outward cargo, and it is remarkable
that the tenth Earl of Dundonald, a man as inge-
nious and energetic as the late Earl, clearly foresaw
the value of the salt-trade in this respect, and urged
its extension upon the nation in an able pamphlet *
of the year 1785. Though the Northern nations
then drew their salt from Spain, Portugal, or Sar-
dinia, he held that, " salt may become a great article
of export trade from this country" to Flanders,
Holland, part of Germany, Prussia, Norway, Den-
mark, Sweden, and Russia, because two-thirds of the
outward-going vessels to some of these countries
sail in ballast, making their freight upon their

* The Present State of the Manufacture of Salt Explained. By the
Earl of DimdonalcL London : 1785.

236 The Coal Que^tioji.

homeward voyage, and it was not to be doubted
that they would rather accept half freights which,
however small, are a clear gain, than incur the cost
of ballast. Our export of salt exactly fulfils the
purpose explained by the Earl, but on a more exten-
sive scale than he coidd possibly have anticipated.
In 1861 about 700,000 tons of salt were exported
from England, by far the largest part of which
comes down the Weaver from the Cheshire works
to Liverpool, and is there shipped.^

There is a curious relation too between the
earthenware manufacture and the shipping interest
of the Western ports. From early times indeed
the Staffordshire earthenware trade has presented a
remarkable instance of the arrangement of freights.
The materials of earthenware, fuel, flintstones and
clay are never found together like the materials of
the iron manufacture ; the finished earthenware too
is of so bulky a nature when packed in crates, that
a large part of its cost depends upon the cost of
conveyance. Proximity to a coal-field is the first
requisite of a pottery ; proximity to a market the
next requisite. Both these requisites are combined
in the Staffordshire potteries. In the days of pack-
horse conveyance their central position was of great
importance, because the pack-horses, which brought

^ Braithwaite Poole. On the Commerce of Liverpool, 1854, p. 33.

Of the Export of Coal. 237

the flints and clay from the nearest ports, could be
used to carry and distribute the crockery slung in
crates over the horses' backs. The flints were
brought from the chalk districts of the south-east of
England, by sea to Hull, and thence up the Trent
as far as possible ; while the clay came from Devon-
shire and Cornwall, either by the Severn as far as
Bewdley, or up the Mersey and Weaver to Wins-
ford.^

In later days the early opening of canal com-
munication and the commercial proximity of the
potteries to Liverpool have been of the highest im-
portance to both. So much iron and other heavy
articles are shipped at Liverpool, that the ship-
owners need some light, bulky article to fill up the
higher parts of the ships' holds. A considerable
part of the produce of the Staffordshire potteries,
accordingly, goes to Liverpool, the export of crockery
being stimulated by the favourable freights offered.
And such is the demand for crockery at the port,
that several attempts have been made to attract the
manufacture itself to Liverpool or Birkenhead.
Further, the Clyde ship-owners, having a great
superfluity of heavy iron cargoes, and experiencing
a like want of light freight to complete the loading
of their ships, have actually attempted to create a

* Smiles' Engineers, voL i. p. 447.

238 The Coal Question.

pottery manufacture about Glasgow with that pur-
pose.^

At Liverpool indeed the whole products of the
Lancashire factories, the earthenware and hardware
of Staffordshire, the iron of South Wales, added to
the salt of Cheshire, furnish a large mass of outward '
cargo, and the export of coal has hitherto been
of minor importance. But with the progress of
trade, that port will receive such immense masses
inwards, that outward cargoes of coal will come
more into demand. In 1850, Mr. William Laird
urged the suitability of Liverpool for the export of
coal, and there cannot be a doubt that in the natural
progress of our trade, coal staiths at Liverpool, sup-
plied by direct lines from the South Lancashire field,
will ship great amounts of coal ballast.

At other ports coal is, and long has been, an
inestimable benefit to the shipowners. It is destruc-
tive to their profits to keep a vessel long in port
waiting for cargo, and it is worse to send her off in
ballast. Where there are coal-staiths, however, she
can be loaded and despatched in a day or two, with
a cargo that will at least pay expenses, and find a
ready sale in any part of the world. . It is on this
principle that the Manchester, Shefl&eld, and Lin-

* Heam*s Plutology, p. 310, quoting Journal of the Statistical
Society, vol. xx. p. 134.

Of the Export of Coal 239

colnshire railway are raising Grimsby into a port.
Just in proportion, it is found, as they offer outward
cargoes of coal can they induce vessels to resort to
the port with their inward cargoes. And the ship-
ments of Yorkshire coal from Grimsby, which began
for the first time with 8,700 tons in 1855, were
92,000 tons in 1857, and 130,000 tons in 1859.

It is in the rates of freight that we can best study
the relative demand and supply of cargo. A want
of outward cargo causes shipowners to bid for what
is to be had, and reduce their prices of freight
accordingly. Were there no ballast cargo like coal
available, the outward rates must become quite
nominal, until it would be profitable to send bricks,
flagstones, and paving stones on long sea voyages.
But the fact that coal may always be shipped esta-
blishes a certain minimum rate of freight depending
upon the price at which we can compete with
foreign coal or other fuel, and force a trade so
essential to our shipowners. It is thus that " in the
principal ports of the Ocean and the Mediterranean,
Newcastle coals are those which serve as a basis
to establish the prices of the different qualities of
coal.^' ^

In the current rates of freight (May, 1864,) we

* French Official Report. " Situation de Tlndustrie Houill^re en
1869," p. 17.

240 The Coal Question.

may detect many eflFects of demand and supply, as
well as a general confirmation of the facts stated.
Thus the outward freight to Bombay is only 205.
per ton, the homeward freight being 606\ or three
times as much, owing to the large shipments thence
of cotton, rice, seeds, &c. The outward rate to
Aden, however, is 305. and to Suez 505. owing
chiefly to the considerable demand at those points
for coal for the Peninsular and Oriental Mail
steamers, with the absence of freights thence.

At the following Eastern ports the large prepon-
derance of the homeward freights of cotton, sugar,
tea, jute, and other Eastern produce, causes the
inward to exceed the outward coal-freight several
times.

Outward. Homeward.

i. d. 8. d.

Calcutta 17 6 .... 75 0

Singapore .... 27 0 .... 75 0

Shanghai 40 0 .... 72 10

Mauritius .... 20 0 .... 50 0

In South America, agabi, the demand for carriage
of hides, bones, nitrate of soda, &c. raises the freight
to England in a considerable ratio.

Outward.

Homeward.

8. d.

Rio de Janeiro . .

, . 28 0 . .

. . 45 0

Pemambuco . .

. . 19 0 . .

. . 41 0

Rio Grande . .

. . 40 0 . .

. . 50 0

Of the. Export of Coal 241

Throughout the West Indies the demand for ship-
ment of coffee, sugar, logwood, mahogany, &o. raises
home freights to double the outward.

Oatward. Homeward.

8, d, 8. d,

Porto Rico .... 25 6 .... 52 6

Jamaica 28 0 .... 43 0

St. JagodeCuba. . 27 0 .... 60 .0

Havannah .... 27 6 .... 55 0

The homeward freights from New York chiefly
depend upon the shipments of com. Taking the
rate at 6s. 3d. per quarter, we find the following
relation by weight

Outward. Homeward,

8. d. 8. d»

New York, ... 22 0 .... 30 0

For Canadian ports there is a greater disproportion,
owing to the inward excess for timber freights and
the less outward demand.

Outward.

Homeward.

8. d.

Montreal (wheat)

1 . (

. . . 33 0

Halifax ....

. 17 0 .

» • . '

In the Mediterranean ports there is far less dis-
proportion on the average, and it is curious that the
preponderance of freights is opposite at the two
ends. At the lower, or western ports, outward
exceed inward freights, as at Marseilles.

Oittward. Homeward.

8, d. 8, d.

Marseilles .... 20 0 .... 16 0

242 The Coal Qxiestwii.

At the higher or Eastern ports on the contrary,
the fruit freights from the Archipelago, or the wheat,
tallow, and other freights from the Black Sea, raise
the homeward rates as follows : —

Outward. Homeward.

9. d. 8. d.

Smyrna 23 6 .... 37 6

Odessa 23 0 .... 45 0

r-
\

On the West Coast of South America we meet
with an immense excess of homeward cargo. Not
only are there large quantities of nitrate of soda,
copper ore, and wool to ship to Europe, but there is
also the guano trade from Callao, a most remarkable
instance of the conveyance of bulky material. Now
as our coal has to compete with the native Chilian
bituminous coal on most unequal terms, we find
the following immense disproportion of outward coal
and homeward guano freights.

Callao

Outward.

Homeward.

«. d.

8. d.

24 0 .

. . . 80 0

A curious exchange has recently sprung up of
Newcastle coal for Spanish or Esparto grass, a
material much required to make paper for The
Times newspaper, and the vast masses of recent
periodical literature. The following are the rates.

Outward to the Spanish Ports.

Homeward to Tyne.

8. d.

t. d.

23 0

18 0

Of the Export of Coal 243

The demand for coal apparently is so good in
Spain that the coal bears almost the same freight as
if sent to the west coast of South America ! And
thus while we almost make the Peruvians a present
of our coal, the Spaniards in a less degree may be
said to make us a present of the materials of paper.

With few exceptions, then, homeward freights are
in excess of outward freights from one and a half to
three or four-fold. And the very exceptions, arising
from an extraordinary foreign demand for coal
would, if examined, confirm the view of the impor-
tant part that coal plays in our trade.

That the facilities for getting coal freights from
Newcastle and the other Eastern coal-ports appre-
ciably reduce rates of freights to those ports is
clearly shown in the following rates from Dantzig
to the east coast of England, during 1861.*

Timber per Load.

Wheat per Quarter.

8. d.

«. d.

To Coal Ports .

. . 14 0

. . . 3 1^

To other Ports

. . 17 3 . .

> . . O €7

Thirty years ago it was stated that there was no
considerable amount of back freight for vessels
bringing timber from Memel except coal.^

One of the most curious effects of the balance of
freights is seen in the North American coal trade,

* Commercial Reportfir from Foreign Consuls, 1862, p. 155.
' Committee on Mainufiicturesi, 1833. Queries, 7,420-5, &c.

R 2

244 Tlie Coal Question.

In 1862 we shipped coal to the amount of 448,601
tons to thirty-eight ports of the United States,
Canada, and the other British Colonies on the
Western seaboard of North America. At the same
time an export trade in coal is constantly carried
on from the Cape Breton mines, along the coast to
New York and Philadelphia. Lastly, there is a
trade in American coals to the extent, in 1860, of
240,697 tons from the Pennsylvanian field to the
West Indian Islands, probably by the retmn voyage
of vessels bringing sugar, coflFee, firuits, and other
tropical products. Such a circulation of a bulky,
cheap commodity like coal, and the fact that coal
is actually shipped to Philadelphia, the port of the
America coalfields, is as paradoxical as carrying coals
to Newcastle, and is inexplicable except as a conse-
quence of the balance of fi-eights.

It would be difficult to overestimate the benefits
the trade in coal has conferred upon us. Writers
for some centuries back have been unanimous in
regarding the Newcastle collier fleet as the nursery
of our seamen. The " Newcastle voyage is • . . if
not the onely, yet the especiall nursery and schoole
of seamen : For, as it is the chiefest, so it is the
gentlest, and most open to landmen."^ And no
T)ne could better have expressed than the writer of

* The Trade's Increase, p. 25.

0/ the Export of Coal. 245

the above, the way in which an Englishman regards
a ship. "As concerning ships, it is that which
every one knoweth, and can say, they are our
weapons, they are our ornaments, they are our
strength, they are our pleasures, they are our
defence, they are our profit ; the subject by them is
made rich, the kingdome through them strong ; the
Prince in them is mighty; in a word by them
in a manner we live, the kingdome is, the king
reigneth/' ^

Another able anonymous writer, in arguing
against the old 55. tax upon seaborne coal, expresses
similar views, his chief purpose being " to show how
pernicious this tax upon coal is to Trade and Navi-
gation, the safety and glory of England,''*

" The collier trade is the true parent and support
of our navigation."

"The collier fleet," he says again,' "is the great
body of the shipping of England, and all our other
trades are served by detachments from it. Our
East country, Norway, and a great part of the West
Indian fleet, are but parts of' the collier fleet ; from
which they may depart one or two voyages in the
year, as the contingency of the market abroad, or

* The Trade's Increase, p. 2.

' The Mischief of the Five-Shilling Tax upon Coal. London,
1699, p. 3. ^ Ibid. p. 5.

246 The Coal Qv^estion.

a chance fraight at home oflTers. From which as
soon as performed, they retmn again into the coUier
trade, that is, indeed, the refuge, as well as the
nursery of our navigation/^ But in the following
he expresses stiU more exactly the part that coal
now plays in our coasting and foreign shipping.

"Its the collier trade alone that affords constant
work to the navigation of England. It is there
that every idle ship, and every idle saylor are sure
never to want a voyage or a berth to Newcastle/'^

"The coUier trade is the most huge and bulky
trade that possibly can be managed, and therefore
in its nature most proper, above all others, to employ
not only vast numbers of people upon it^ but to
afford continually work for them. All our other
trades are by fits and starts. Ships and sailors
must have constant work.'^ ^

And the French so clearly perceive the maritime
advantages this trade gives, that they attribute to
us in the present day the policy of promoting ex-
portation.

" The English Government uses every possible
means to stimulate an exportation which contributes
powerftdly to its maritime preponderance without
hurting its industrial preponderance.'

» 3

' The Mischief of the Five-Shilling Tax upon Coal." London,
H>99, p. 5. ' Ibid. p. 6.

Situation de I'lnd. &c. p. 27.

3 Ci;

Of the Export of Coal. 247

And the Newcastle manufacturers are well aware
of the advantages they enjoy,

"The ready communication/' they say, "which
has been obtained with foreign ports, by means of
the numerous vessels employed in the exportation
of coals, has greatly facilitated the sale of the
various articles manufactured by your memorialiste,
and has consequently increased the value of pro-
perty employed in manufactures in this district/' ^

Our exports of coal now amount to about eight
million tons in a year, the sale of which in foreign
ports must return nearly four millions sterling to
our coalowners, and six millions or more in the
shape of freight to our shipowners. To prohibit
this trade would therefore be to incur a burden
equal to the income tax at its worst. And though
the greater part of this burden would be borne by the
community in general as the consumers of foreign
produce, it would be inflicted through that branch
of our industry, our navigation, which is truly the
safety and glory of England.

But on the other hand we cannot look upon our
growing exports without anxiety. The following
numbers show their extraordinary rate of growth
since the repeal of the export tax :—

* Memorial of the Manufacturers of the Tyne, of iron, lead, glass,
rope, alkali, sail-cloth, &c. (1842 ?)

248

The Coal Question.

Amount of Coal
exported.

Coal duty per ton.

Rate of increase
percent, of ex-
ports in ten years.

Tons.

«. d.

1821

170,941

7 6

1831

356,419

4 Q

109

1841

1,497,197

0 0

320

1851

3,468,545

0 0

132

1861

7,855,115

0 0

126

1862

8,301,852

0 0

1863

8,275,212

0 0

Our exports were more than quadrupled in ten
years under a repeal of the duty, and have more
than doubled themselves in each subsequent ten
years. And though there is a slight check in the
last year (1863), from some fluctuation of commerce,
no one can doubt that the extension of our com-
merce and the growth of continental industry will
demand a continued increase of exports at about
as high a rate of multiplication.*

"Independent of the superiority of the article,
the freights of vessels from our shores are getting so
low, and the distance between Great Britain and the
coast of France is so short, that we shall always be
able to have the advantage over Belgian and even
French coal in the seaport towns."

' The export of coal (iuring 1864 amounted to 8,800,420 tons.

Of the Export of Coal. 249

And the inevitable progress of free trade wiU
ever increase the tendency to export coal. As we
subsist more and more upon foreign corn, meat,
sugar, rice, coffee, tea> fruit, &c. and work more and
more on foreign timber, ores, cotton, silk, wool, dye-
wood, oils, seeds, &c, while returning the costly and
elaborate products of our steam-driven factories,
there must be an ever-growing surplus of inward
freights and a corresponding demand for outward
ballast freights.

Our foreign coal trade has been, is, and will be
an integral and essential part of our system. It
is the alpha and omega of our trade. As it was
the earliest nursery of our seamen, so it is now
their especial support, and it bids fair to hasten
us to an early end. It makes our limited fields
the common property of the sea-coast inhabitants of
all coimtries. The Newcastle mines are almost as
high a benefit to the French, Dutch, Prussian,
Danish, Norwegian, Kussian, Spanish, and Italian
coast-towns, as to our own. And foreigners not
unnaturally think we are simple enough in thus
lending ourselves to them. " It has often been re-
peated, for some time past, that there is one simple
means of competing with England in her manu-
factures. It is to buy her coal from her, and Eng-
land has lent herself to this design by developing

250 The Coal Question.

and facilitating her exportations of coal in every
possible way/"

The extraordinary progress of our steam marine
was noticed in a previous chapter. Its close con-
nexion with the export trade of coal cannot escape
attention. Our lines of steam-vessels create a de-
mand for coal at the most distant and widely ex-
tended points of the globe; while low, outward
freights enable coal to be sent cheaply to those
points. Accordingly, as long as Britain maintains
L present comm" Ll «.d n^tuae position, no.
only the continental and other sea-coasts, in most
parts of the world, but also the greater part of the
steam-vessels plying on every sea, wiU draw then-
supplies from those seaboard coal-fields of Newcastle,
South Wales, the Clyde, and the Mersey, which,
taken as a whole, in the various quality of their
fuel, in their facilities of shipment, and their supply
of over-sea freight, are wholly unrivalled by any
other coal-fields.

The absurdity of the notion of this country
importing coals on any large scale, will now be
apparent. The fact that we now export large
quantities of coal instead of showing the possibility
of a return current, shows its commercial impossi-
bility. The coal exported acts as a makeweight, to

* Situation de V Industrie HouilUre en 1859.

Of the. Export of Coal. 25 1

remedy in some degree the one-sided character of
our trade. Coal is to us that one great raw material
which balances the whole mass of the other raw
materials we import, and which we pay for either
by coal in its crude form, or by manufactures which
represent a greater or less quantity of coal consumed
in the steam-engine, or the smelting furnace. To
import coal as well as other raw materials would be
against the essentially reciprocal nature of trade.
The weight of our inward cargoes would be multi-
plied many times, and but little weight left for out-
ward carriage ; almost every influence which now
acts, and for centuries has acted, in favour of our
maritime and manufacturing success, would then
act against it, and it would be arrogance and folly
indeed to suppose that even Britain can carry for-
ward her industry in spite of nature, and in the
want of every material condition. In our successes
hitherto it is to nature we owe at least as much as
to our own energies.

252 The Coal Question.

CHAPTER XIIL

OF THE COMPARATIVE COAL RESOURCES OF

DIFFERENT COUNTRIES.

It is essential to our inquiry to view the several
coal-producing countries comparatively. Thus only
can we gain a true notion of our singular position.

The following statement gives the amounts of
coal raised about the years 1858 — 1860, in the chief
coal-producing countries : —

Annual production.
Tons.

Great Britain, 1860 80,042,698

United States 21,000,000*

British American Possessions 1,500,000

New South Wales 250,000

Pnissia, Saxony, &c 12,000,000

* Hull, Coal-fields of Great Britain, 2nd ed. p. 29, and Situation de
rind. &c. p. Ill, quoting a report of M. Gonot, Ing^nieur en chef des
Mines du Hainaut, 1858.

In the Statistical Tables concerning foreign countries, 1862, p. 262,
the coal produced in the United States in 1860 is stated at 15,173,409
tons ; but this does not seem to me to include the whole produce of
anthracite of Pennsylvania, which, according to the commercial Reports
of Foreign Consuls, 1862, p. 409, amounted to 8,000,000 in 1860,
having grown from 3,200,000 tons in 1850.

Coal Resources of Different Countries. 253

Annual production.
Tons.

Belgium 8,900,000

France 7,900,000

Eussian Empire (estimated) 1,500,000

Austria 1,162,9(J0

Spain 300,000

Japan, China, Borneo, &c (estimated) . . 2,000,000

Of a total produce of 136 J millions of tons, 103
millions are produced by nxitions of British origin
and languxtgCy and 80 millions are produced in
Great Britain itself

Of the chief material agent of Tnodem civilizor

tion, three parts out of five, or 60 per cent, are in

the use of Great Britain ; and three parts out of

four, or 75 per cent are in the use of Anglo-Saxon

nations.

The reader must form for himself if he can, an
adequate notion of the stimulus which the possession
of such a mighty power gives to our race.

Let us compare the amounts with the comparative
stores of coal existing in the several countries which
have been explored. The actual quantities of coal,
indeed, are almost wholly unknown; we can only
compare the supposed areas of the coal-fields. This
has been done by Professor Eogers, in the following
statement : — ^

^ Sdiiiburgh Beview, yoL cxi. p. 88.

254 The Coal Question.

Area of Coal Lands in
square miles.

United States 196,650

British North American Possessions .... 7,530

Great Britain 5,400

France 984

Prussia 960

Belgium 510

Bohemia 400

Westphalia 380

Spain 200

Eussia 100

Saxony 30

Such estimates indeed can pretend to no accuracy,
and the area of a coal-field is but slight measure of
its value. We can only learn from the statement
that our English coal-fields are many times as im-
portant as those of any European country, but that
the North American coal-fields almost indefinitely
surpass ours in extent, and, it may be added, in
contents.

Coal may also be said to exist more or less in most
other parts of the world — in India, China, Japan,
Labuan, New Zealand, Australia, Brazil, Chili, and
Central Africa. Many details concerning the fre-
quent occurrence of coal may be found in K. C.
Taylor's " Statistics of Coal," * but they have in
reality little bearing upon our inquiry. With the
exception of the great North American fields, none
are at all capable of competing in quality or extent

* 1st ed. 1848 ; 2nd ed. revised by S. 0. Haldeman.

Coal Resources of Different Countries. 255

with our coal-fields. They will prove very useful
in furnishing a supply for local industry and steam
navigation. Upon and around each coal-field may
grow up, as we hope, a prosperous commimity, en-
joying those uses of coal which older nations are
discovering ; but the only way in which those coal-
fields could interfere with, and reduce the consump-
tion of our coal would be, either by —

1. Supplying sea-board coal markets which we
now supply, or

2. Supporting a system of manufacturing industry
capable of competing with ours.

Now, if the comparatively cumbersome and heavy
nature of coal be considered, it will be seen that the
cost of conveyance is a main element. A small ex-
tent of mountainous country, a considerable distance
firom a port, or a position far jfrom the general current
of trade, removes a coal-field firom competition.
Thus the French Official Keport regards the diffi-
culty and cost of conveyance as the great obstacle
in the way of the French coal-mines. Otherwise,
without being comparable with English fields, they
are rich enough for home consumption.^ " In France
the deposits of combustible mineral are numerous,
Ijut there is only a small number which are suscep-
tible either from their extension, or the quality of

^ Situation de Tlndustrie Houill^re en 1859, p. 9.

256 The Coal Question.

their products, of development upon a great scale.
Most of these basins, too, are situated in moun-
tainous countries, difficult of access, where lines of
communication have penetrated but slowly and at
great cost. This circumstance explains why at
present the price of coal at market exceeds, in a
very high proportion, the wholesale price at the pit
mouth."

An English report expresses a similar opinion.
" At St. Etienne, the heart of the French mining
district, coal can be extracted as low as in Wales,
and the expense of it throughout France is imputed
to the absence of easy lines of carriage and commu-
nication, which enabk Englid. coal to l» sold on tte
French coast at a profit."^

On the other hand, the favourable natural con-
ditions of our mines are thus described by the writers
of the French report : — ^

" England is the most favoured country of Europe
in the extent and richness of its coal-fields. Its
superiority is confirmed by the varied and generally
excellent quality of its coal, and by a regularity of
the strata very favoxirable to the working of coal-
mines.

" Lastly, as if nature had striven to unite in these

1 Report of the South Shields Committee, 1843.
? Situation de Tlndustrie Houill^re en 1859, p. 15.

Coal Resources of Different Countries. 257

coal-fields all the circumstances most conducive to
mining and trading in coal, the two richest basins,
those of Wales and Newcastle, are intersected by
the sea. The coal-owners can load, and ship their
products in the most economical manner, and thus
consign them to any point of the home or conti-
nental coasts.

" Over- sea conveyance, too, is the more cheap,
because in English commerce the outward voyage
may be considered as a voyage in ballast, and the
return freight covers the chief part of the expenses.

" A like union of favourable conditions does not
present itself at any other point of the globe, and
constitutes a natural privilege with which no other
coimtry can entertain the notion of contending as
regards industry founded upon the working and
trading in coal. Any attempt at competition of
the kind would necessarily be followed by defeat."

Foreign coal-fields then are almost wholly ex-
cluded from competition with ours as regards sea-
borne coal, because even if there were any coal-fields
comparable with ours, in intrinsic natural advantages,
there would still be wanting the extrinsic advantages
of the vast trading system and the mercantile
marine of England capable of conveying and dis-
tributing the coal. In a great many parte of the
world, at Sydney, Cape Breton, at Newcastle in

258 The Coal Question.

Australia, Labuan, Chili, Asturias in Spain, and on
the coast of the Black Sea, there are seams of coal
almost abutting on the sea, but the set of trade and
navigation in the wrong direction enables, or rather
obliges, us to carry our coals out to these local
Newcastles. And if coal situated actually on the
sea-board cannot drive our coal away, the high cost
of land conveyance completely removes all inland
coal-fields from direct competition with our mines
in the general sea-board coal markets of the world.

The coal-mines of Belgium have long been occu-
pied in supplying French consumers, and their trade
was protected by the French differential duties on
English coal. The abolition of the differential duty
and the progress of the French mines are now inter-
fering with the Belgian produce of coal.

According to an Antwerp newspaper correspon-
dent, "It is even doubted that the export can be
maintained at its present figure, as, on the one hand,
the coal-pits of France — those du Nord, du Pas
de Calais, and de la Sarre — are increasing the ex-
traction and are making a vigorous competition to
the coal of Mons and Charleroi in all the northern
markets of that country ; while, on the other hand,
the pits of Ruhr, in Holland, are becoming more
prolific, and are, consequently, able to compete with
the Liege and centre pits of Belgium which have

Coal Resources of Different Countries. 259

hitherto suppUed the Dutch market. This state of
things causes, as may be supposed, considerable
uneasiness in this country. The Chamber of Com-
merce of Mons, as representative of one of the
principal coal districts, has taken the matter into
serious consideration, and has declared that the only
remedy for the evil is, that Belgium shall export
coal beyond the sea, as England does, instead of, as
heretofore, confining her exports almost exclusively
to land. Having come to this conclusion, the
Chamber had instituted an examination into the
cost of shipping coal at Sunderland and at Antwerp,
but has found to its dismay that the latter is
infinitely greater. According to the statement it
has procured, all the various port charges for dis-
patching a collier of 400 tons with a cargo of coal
fi*om Sunderland are 928/ 33c. (rather more than
37Z. 25. 6d.), whilst the like charges for one sent
from Antwerp are 1,511/ 78c. (60Z. 135. &d.) Under
these circumstances, competition is impossible. The
Chamber has accordingly called on the Government
to take measures for making a very large reduction
in the Antwerp charges. It also requires it to give
subventions for establishing lines of steamers to ply
regularly between Antwerp and certain of the great
ports in which coal is in demand. Such lines, it
thinks, would lead to a considerable augmentation

s 2

260 The Coal Question.

in trade, and would produce a demand for Belgian
coaL Whether the Government will do anything,
and, if so, what, remains to be seen."

The Belgian Chamber of Commerce does not show
its wisdom in supposing that state subventions and
lines of steamers can alter the course of such a great
trade as that in coal.

The following further remarks on the Newcastle
field, considering the source from which they come,
namely, the French Official Keport, are also of im-
portance : — " Its richness is considerable ; but what
gives a character especially favourable to the work-
ing of coal is the regularity of its strata, and the
firmness of its roof. It is true there exist various
faults in the Newcastle basin, as in ours, but they
are less numerous." ^

It is thus the writer explains the fact that the
yield of the Newcastle field exceeded the united
yields of France and Belgium.

" It has been pretended,^' he continues, " that the
cheapness of coal in England arises from the skill
of the colliers, and the low wages with which they
are content. Two distinguished engineers sent to
England by the coal companies of Anzin and Noeux,
have corrected these assertions and stated, once for
all, that the superiority of England over France and

^ Situation de i'lndustrie Houillere en 1869, p. 17.

Coal Resources of Different Countries. 261

**telgiuin arises not from any superior art in coal-
' 'working, nor in the pretended lowness of the wages,
■•Dut in the easy conditions of the works/' ^

The result of these easier conditions of English
^ coal-mining is shown in the far greater amounts of
coal raised in a year by English than by foreign
coal-miners. Dividing the total amount raised in a
given district by the number of persons employed
underground in raising it, we have the following
numbers : —

Average produce
per head.

France, 1852 107«

Belgium, 1846 122'

North of England Coal-field, 1856 494*

Lancashire field 310 ^

The accuracy of such results is much to be doubted,
and no account is taken of many expenses of capital
and current account, which are much higher in
English than foreign mines. Yet it is not to be
doubted that we have a very high advantage.

That French and continental mines generally
cannot possibly compete with our coal-mines is

^ Situation de Tlndustrie Houillke en 1859, p. 19.

^ Fordyce, Histoiy of Coal, Coke, and Coal Mining, pp. 26, 27.

» Ibid.

^ T. Y. Hall, Trans. N. of Eng. Inst, of Mining Engineers, vol. iv.
p. 200.

^ J. Dickinson, Statistics of the Collieries of Lancashire, &c Man-
chester Memoirs, 3rd series.

The Coal Question.

further shown in the following remarks of Mr. R.
C. Taylor:—^

" It is due to the unrivalled accessibility by sea
to the best coal basins of England, Scotland, and
Wales — where coals of many varieties and admirable
qualities can be shipped at the very sites where they
are mined — that Great Britain has hitherto been
able to furnish such enormous and cheap supplies,
not only to the home consumers, but nearly to every
maritime countiy in Europe. In this respect she
is far more favourably circumstanced than her rival
continental producers, France, Belgium, Prussia, and
Austria, whose coal-fields lie remote from the sea-
shore.

" From Dunkirk to Bayonne, an extent of 300
leagues of coast, there are but two coal-fields, and
those are at some distance from the sea. In regard
also to the quality of the coal, France is less fortu-
nate than England ; for, with the exception of the
basins of Anzin, St. Etienne, and a few others, the
collieries of the interior yield but an inferior species
of fuel. Both these circumstances combine to
render France, to a certain extent, dependent upon
Great Britain for the better sorts of coal ; and
hence the French Government annually make large

' StatiHtics of Coal, 1st cd. p. 275, quokd l>j the Edinburgh Heeiftr,
ToL xc p. 534,

Coal Resources of Different Countries. 263

and increasing contracts for the delivery of English
coal at their dep6ts, for the use of their steam
marine on service. The incapability of Belgium,
with her increasing domestic consumption, and in
view of her diminished powers of production, and
the remoteness of her coal-fields jfrom the sea-ports,
to supply the steam navy of France with any ma-
terial portion of its regular fuel, is perfectly well
understood. The diminished supply from Belgium
in 1846 and 1847, and the corresponding increase
from Great Britain, will be seen from our statistical
table. As to Spain, until the immense newly-
opened coal-field of the Asturias, adjacent to the
Bay of Biscay, shall be adequately developed, and
its qualities more fully ascertained, it cannot be
known how far she can, in addition to her own in-
creasing demands, meet the growing wants of France
and of Southern Europe.

" The manner in which the coal-tracts of Great
Britain are distributed, is fortunately such that,
every coal-field in England and Wales can meet the
next adjoining coal-field nearly on a radius of thirty
miles, thus forming such a range of deposits, from
Scotland to South Wales and Somersetshire, that
the whole interior of the country can be supplied
with coals, through the railroad system, from several
central points/'

264 Tlie Coal Question.

So long then as the currents of trade and navi-
gation continue in their present general course,
there are no coal-fields capable of competing with
and reducing the demand for our coal in regard to
the over-sea coal trade. The only other way in
which a foreign coal-field could affect the pros-
perity of our coal-consuming industry would be by
nourishing abroad great systems of manufacturing
industry capable of withdrawing from us a part of
the custom of the world which we now enjoy as
regards coal-made articles almost to the extent of a
monopoly.

If, for instance, there were plenty of good coal in
France, such a system of iron and coal industry
might rise upon it as at any rate to deprive us of
the custom of French consumers. Strange to say,
this result has taken place to some extent, as I believe.
The good order and enlightened commercial policy of
the Imperial Government has had such an extraor-
dinary effect upon French industry, that the produce
of coal from the interior French mines has been
advancing at the rate of 6*7 per cent, per annum, —
at nearly double the rate of increase of our con-
sumption of coal. The French iron manufacture
has been advancing in a manner equally surprising,
so that instances are not uncommon now of English
orders for iron goods being executed in France!

Coal Resources of Different Countries. 265

And it is no doubt owing to this advance of French
industry in a manner parallel to our own, that the
French treaty of commerce has had so much less
remarkable results than was expected. Even the
imports of coal into France have remained station-
ary, as seen in the following accounts : —

Coal raised in Coal Coal consmned

France. imported. in France.

Tons. Tons. Tons.

1860 . . 7,900,000 . . 5,900,000 . . 13,800,000*
1862 . . 9,400,000 . . 5,900,000 . . 15,300,000^

The natural riches and skill of the French are,
however, so comparatively higher in many other
branches of industry, that it cannot be supposed
the competition of their coal industry can proceed
far, or prove permanent and formidable.

The extraction of coal in Belgium, again, has
been increasing at the rate of 2*7 per cent, per
annum, as seen in the following accounts of the
extraction : —

Tons.

1854 7,950,000

1859 9,160,702

1862 9,935,645

1863 10,345,000

But the Belgian coal proprietors, as we have seen,
are afraid that the produce of their mines has

1 Situation de Flndustrie Houillere, p. 7.
' Journal of Scieiice, No. 2, pp. 337, 338.

266 The Coal Question.

nearly reached its maximnnL The fact is that the
Belgian mines have been worked at least as long
as our Newcastle mines, and have reached still
greater depths. They are even further advanced
towards exhaustion than our own; and as their
produce near its maximum is not one-eighth part
of our coal produce, it would be absurd to suppose
that they can support any industry capable of
seriously competing with ours.

Prussia, by its somewhat inland position, as well
as for other reasons, is also incapable of taking any
considerable share of the trade of the world, and no
other European country has coal-mines worth con-
sideration here.

It is only when we turn to North America that
we meet a country capable of comparing in coal
resources with our own, and the future of England
greatly depends therefore upon the future of America.
The areas of American and British coal-fields have
already been compared, and the current statement is
sufficiently true, that the American fields exceed
ours as 37 to 1.

Canada, indeed, is devoid of any trace of the coal
measures, and presents a remarkable contrast to the
regions by which it is surrounded. The British
American Provinces of Newfoundland, New Bruns-
wick and Nova Scotia contain the North Easterly

Coal Resources of Different Countries. 267

extensions of the great American fields. But so
far as yet known the coal measures are here more
interesting to the geologist than to the economist
Their area is very considerable, and the seams are
numerous, but are spread through masses of strata
many thousand feet in thickness. Thus the Cumber-
land coal-field in Nova Scotia, according to Prof.
Rogers, has an area of 6,889 square miles, exceeding
the whole area of British coal-fields. But the
greater portion consists of the lower and, upper
carboniferous strata, destitute of valuable coal-
seams. The thickness of the whole series of rocks
is not less than 14,570 feet' The Sydney coal-field
with an area of 250 square miles, and a thickness
of about 10,000 feet of strata, -is of more present
importance, since four seams of workable coal crop
out at Sydney Harbour and are easily available for
an export trade so far as shipping can be had.

It is, however, the basin of the Mississippi which
contains the main mass of productive coal measures.
There is reason to suppose that the carboniferous
formation was originally spread in one continuous
sheet over the whole of central America, from the
flanks of the Rocky Mountains to the shores of the
North Atlantic and from the Gulf of Mexico to
Newfoundland. Large portions must have been

^ Coal-fields of Great Britain, 2nd ed. p. 208.

Breadth.

Area.

MUes.

. 180 . ,

. 55,500

. 200 . ,

. 51,100

. 200 . ,

73,913

. 125 .

. 13,350

• •

3,000

268 The Coal Question.

removed by denudation, but enough, it may well be
said, remains, in five distinct fields of which the
areas are thus stated by Prof. Rogers :

Basin. ^"^"^

MUes.

Appalachian 875 .

Illinois, Indiana, and Kentucky 370 .
Missouri and Arkansas . . . 550 .

Michigan 160 .

Texas 160 .

Total area, 196,863 square miles.

The Appalachian field is of the highest economic
importance. On the eastward it has been crumpled
up into the series of ranges forming the Alleghany
mountains. At the same time the bituminous
portion of the coal has been more or less distiUed
off; producing the anthracite coal of Mauch Chunk
and the other Eastern Pennsylvanian mines. The
seams of coal, however, retain their bituminous
character and their horizontal position on the
west of the Alleghany mountains. "In that less
elevated country, the coal-measures are intersected
by three great navigable rivers, and are capable of
suppljdng for ages, to the inhabitants of a densely-
peopled region, an inexhaustible supply of fuel.
These rivers are the Monongahela, the Alleghany
and the Ohio, all of which lay open on their banks
the level seams of coal. Looking down the first of
these at Brownsville, we have a fine view of the

Coal Resources of Different Countnies. 269

main seam of bituminous coal ten feet thick,
commonly called the Pittsburg seam, breaking out
in the steep cliff at the water's edge .... Hori-
zontal galleries may be driven everjrwhere at very
slight expense, and so worked as to drain them-
selves, while the cars, laden with coal and attached
to each other, glide down on a railway, so as to
deliver their burden into barges moored to the
river's bank. The same seam is seen at a distance,
on the right bank, and may be followed the whole
way to Pittsburg, fifty miles distant. As it is
nearly horizontal while the river descends, it crops
out at a continually increasing, but never at an
inconvenient, height above the jMonongahela. Below
the great bed of coal at Brownsville is a fire-clay
eighteen inches thick, and below this, several beds
of limestone, below which again are other coal
seams. I have also shown in my sketch another
layer of workable coal, which breaks out on the
slope of the hills at a greater height. Here almost
every proprietor can open a coal-pit on his own
land, and the stratification being very regular, he
may calculate with precision the depth at which
coal may be won."*

The Appalachian coal-field, of which these strata
form a part, is remarkable for its vast area ; for,

1 Lyell, Manual- of Elementary Geology, 1852, p. 331.

270 The Coal Question.

according to Prof. H. D. Rogers, it stretches con-
tinuously from N.E. to S.W. for a distance of 720
miles, its greatest width being about 180 miles. On
a moderate estimate, its superficial area amounts to
63,000 square miles.^'

We have no extensive seams of coal now which
can compare in ease of working with those above
described. The " thick coal " of Staffordshire almost
within the memory of those now living might be
comparable, and four or five centuries ago it is
supposed there were seams on the bank of the Tyne,
and at Whitehaven, which could be worked by
natural drainage, and with the greatest ease. But
shallow coal has necessarily almost disappeared in
England. The consequence is that we cannot now
produce coal, even with the aid of the best engineer-
ing skill, and of abundant trained labour, nearly so
cheap as it can be had on the banks of the Ohio.
At Pittsburg the best bituminous coal may be had at
one half, or one-third the general price at European
mines, as shown in the following comparative table
of prices at the pit.^

s. d. s. d.

France 6 0 to 14 0 "

Germany 7 0 „ 10 0

England 6 0 „ 10 0

Pennsylvania (anthracite) .80,, 90
Pittsburg (bituminous) . . 2 0 „ 4 0

^ Overman, On the Manufacture of Iron, p. 102.

rerent Uountries. 271

In shorty on the Western coal-fields coal can be
obtained at the expense of digging it, that is, at
a cost of a cent, or a cent and a quarter per busheL'

Beyond the reach of doubt there ia no portion of
the .earth's surface so naturally fitted for beeoniing
the seat of great industries. " What is the value it
may he asked," in the woi'ds of an American writer,*
" of 63,000 square miles of country, which yields
coal, iron, oil and salt, beneath its fertile soU ? Here
are the elements of strength, heat, light, food, and
the giant steam, opened at once to the science, skill,
and untiring energy of an enterprising people."

It can excite no surpiiae that a people of British
extraction, endowed with the absolute possession of
lands so rich, so extensive, and so easily accessible as
those of the United States, should spread and mul-
tiply. It is nature in its kindest and most Hberal
mood that has chiefly conti-ibuted to the gi-owth of
the United States. And a certain remarkable talent
for the application and invention of all practical
devices for saving labour and oveifioming obstacles
is the next chief attribute of the American nation
that concerns us here. The moral and political
characteristics of that people, and the influence they

' (Ivonnaii, On the Mamvl'iictiire of Iron. p. 462.
' Gefiicr, Practical Tr-atist cju Coivl, Pt'ti'oltiiii
ISGI, p. 30.

I. &c. New Yiirk,

272 The Coal Question.

may exert for good or for evil upon the world, I
need not, and I cannot venture here or elsewhere in
this inquiry to take into account.

But why it may be asked, does not such wonder-
ful wealth in coal aflfect our prosperity, if so much
depends upon the price of coal? It is because
America has not and cannot for a long period yet,
reach that state of industrial development in which
a great system of manufactures naturally grows up.
Great as is the wealth of coal, the wealth of land
is comparatively to European countries greater still,
and agriculture has and should have the natural
preference over manufactures. Nor has America
long emerged from that earlier stage of the iron
manufacture in which timber is the best fael. Coal-
smelting furnaces in the United States have not
existed more than thirty years. Wood is still so
abundant that charcoal furnaces and forges may be
carried on for a length of time,^ and charcoal has
the natural supremacy over coal, that it produces
iron of the finest quality.

The progress of American coal industry is only
retarded by the comparatively greater wealth in
other respects. And the future relation of American
coal to English industry cannot be better expressed
than in the words of the very able Report of the

^ Ovennan, On the Manufacture of Iron, p. 100.

Coal Resources of Different Countries. 273

South Shields Committee on Coal Mines, in the year
1843.

" It is not the want of coal, but of capital and of
labour that allows the more cheaply wrought British
mineral to seal up the American mines. It is
within the range of possibility to reverse it

" When the expense of working British coal-mines
leaves no remuneration to the capital and labour
employed, when brought into competition with the
mines of other countries, then will they be as
effectually lost to Britain for purposes of ascendency,
and their produce as exports, as if no longer in
physical existence; and her superiority in the
mechanical arts and manufactures, ceteris paribus^
it may well be feared, will be superseded.''

274 The Coal Questwii.

CHAPTER XIV.

OF THE IRON TRADE.

Solon said well to Croesus, when in ostentation he
showed him his gold, " Sir, if any other come that
hath better iron than you, he will be master of all
this gold." * And it will hardly be denied that the
retention of our supremacy in the production and
working of iron is a critical point of our future
history. Most of those works, and inventions, in
which we are pre-eminent, depend upon the use
of iron in novel modes and magnitudes. Roads,
bridges, engines, vessels, are more and more formed
of this invaluable metal. And it was well remarked
by Wilberforce in opposing an intended tax upon
iron, that "the possession of iron was one of the
great grounds of distinction between civilized and
barbarous society ; and in the same proportion that
this country had improved in manufactures and civi-
lization, the manufacture of iron had been extended

^ Bacon.

Of the Iron Trade. 275

and improved, and found its way by numerous mean-

■ If

dering streams into every department of civil life/' *

Of late years also, the Emperor of the French has
turned up a trump card to our present advantage by
showing how much stronger are iron walls than our
long-trusted walls of oak. But the recent history
and importance of iron is so familiar and trite
a subject, and has been treated in so interesting
a manner by Mr. Smiles in the opening chapters of
his Industrial Biography, that I shall pass at once
to facts bearing directly on our inquiry.

As our iron-furnaces are a chief source of our
power in the present, their voracious consumption
of coal is most threatening as regards the future.
Though iron is only one of the many products of
coal, the making and working of iron demands at
present between one-fourth and one-third of our
whole yield of coal, and the iron trade certainly
offers the widest field for a future increase of con-
sumption. We have seen that for a century our
produce of iron has growij at a constant rate,* and
the pre-eminent usefulness of iron places it beside
coal and com as a material of which there cannot
be too much — ^which itself excites and supports
population, offering it the means of constant multi-
plication.

^ Hansard's Debates, vol. vii. p. 79. « See p. 192.

T 2

276 The Coal Question.

But it is essentially a suicidal trade in a national
point of view. Once already, in an earlier period of
iron metallurgy, the iron trade exhausted our re-
sources, and quitted our shores. Its absence contri-
buted to produce that dull and unprogressive period
in the early part of last century which is so strongly
marked upon our annals.

The former vicissitudes of the iron trade are of a
very instructive character. There are two natural
periods in the history of the iron manufacture — the
charcoal period and the coal period. We require
antiquarian writers like Mr. Nichols, Mr, Lower, or
Mr. Smiles, to remind us of the very existence of
a considerable manufacture of charcoal iron in
England in former centuries. It is now so utterly
a thing of the past, that only two or three furnaces
are kept in work at any one time.^

Until the middle of last century, however, iron
was always made with charcoal, and a woody
country was necessarily its seat. Coal or cole was
then the common name for charcoal, pit-coal being
distinguished as sea-coal. The collier or collyer
was the labourer who cut the timber, stacked it in
heaps, charked it, and conveyed the coal on pack-

* Newland and Backbarrow in Lancashire, Duddon in Cumberland,
and Loon, in Scotland, are the only charcoal furnaces in the United
Kingdom. Mineral Statistics, 1863, p. 70.

Of the Iron Trade. 277

horses to the iron hloinary and forge, situated
in some neighbouring valley, where a stream
of water gave motion to the bellows and the tilt-
hammer.

The ore or mine was also brought by pack-horse
from some neighbouring mine or deposit — for there
are few geological formations or districts of this
country which do not yield iron ore. Often the
min^ used was derived from heaps of old slag or
offal, the refuse of still earlier iron works. For in
a previous age, even the use of water-power was
unknown, and the furnace was blown by the fooU
blast, double bellows alternately pressed by a man
as he stepped from one to the other. The low heat
thus obtained was not capable of half withdrawing
the metal from its matrix. The thousands of tons
of cinder and slag, " old man," as it is locally called,
left by the Romans, for the most part, as the in-
cluded coins and antiquities prove, on the Forest of
Dean, the Weald of Sussex, or the Cleveland Hills,
were long a source of wonder and profit to the
manufacturers of a later period.

Here we see a curious instance of the reaction
and mutual dependence of the arts. The use of
water-power, by giving a blast and heat of greater
intensity, raised the iron manufacture to a new
efficiency, but it could not enable us to use coal in

Bmelting iron. It was the advance of the art of
iron working and ita special appUcation in the
steam-engine that gare us the blowing-engine, and
coal blast furnace, which contributed in a main
degree to our commercial resuscitation and our
present strong position.

It was in the 1 7th century that the charcoal iron
manufacture most flourished in England, and its
chief seat was Sussex. " I have heard," says Norden
in his Surveyor's Dialogue, " that there are, or re-
cently were in Sussex neere 140 hammers and
furnaces for iron." And Camden says of Sussex,'
" Full of iron-mines it is in sundry places, where,
for the making and founding thereof, there he
furnaces on every side, and a huge deal of wood is
yearly burnt ; to which purpose divers brooks in
many places are brought to run into one channel,
and sundry meadows turned into pools and waters,
that they might be of power sufficient to drive
hammer-mills, which beating upon the iron, resound
all over the places adjoining."

The increase of the trade threatened to denude
England of the forests which were considered an
ornament to the country, as well as essential to ita
security, as providing the oak timber for our navy.

' Quoted bj M. A. Lower. Conlributions to Literature, ISM,
p. 120.

Of the Iron Trade. 279

Poets and statesmen agreed in condemning the en-
croacliments of the ironmasters.

" These iron times breed none that mind posterity" —

says Drayton. And George Withers in 1634 * speaks
of

" The havoc and the spoyle.
Which, even within the measure of my days,
Is made through every quarter of this Isle—
In woods and groves which were this kingdom's praise."

Stowe at the same period clearly describes the
growing scarcity of wood-fuel, the falsification of
previous anticipations, and the necessity felt for
resorting more and more to coal.

" Such hath bene the plenty of wood in England
for all uses that within man's memory it was held
impossible to have any want of wood in Englandy
hut contrary to former imaginations such hath bene
the great expense of timber for navigation; with
infinite increase of building of houses, with the
great expense of wood to make household furniture
casks, and other vessels not to be numbered, and of
carts, waggons, aiid coaches; besides the extreme
waste of wood in making iron, burning of bricks
and tiles," &c.

" At this present through the great consuming of
wood as aforesaid, there is so great a scarcity of

* Quoted by Smiles. Lives of the Engineers, vol. i. p. 292.

280 The Coal Question.

wood throughout the whole kingdom, that not only
the city of London, all haven towns, and in very
many parts within the land, the inhabitants in
general are constrained to make their fires of sea-
coal, or pit-coal, even in the chambers of honourable
personages; and through necessity, which is the
mother of all arts, they have of very late years
devised the making of iron, the making of all sorts
of glass, burning of bricks, with sea-coal or pit-coal.
Within thirty years last, the nice dames of London
would not come into any house, or room, where sea-
coals were burned, nor willingly eat of the meat
that was either sod or roasted with sea-coal fire/' *

Norden says, " He that well observes it and hath
knowne the welds of Sussex, Surrey, and Kent, the
grand nursery of those kind of trees, especiaUy oke
and beech, shall find an alteration within lesse than
thirty years, as may well strike a feare, lest few
yeares more, as pestilent as the former, will leave
few goode trees standing in these welds. Such a
heat issueth out of the many forges, and furnaces,
for the making of yron, and out of the glasse kilnes,
as hath devoured many famous woods within the
welds."'

Evelyn in his Diary, deploring the fall of a fine

^ Stowe's Annals, 1632, p. 1,025.
' Surveyors' Dialogue, p. 175.

Of the Iron Trade. 281

oak, expresses " a deep execration of iron mills, and
I had almost sayd ironmasters too."

It was against these " voracious iron-works ^ that
statutes of the 1st and 27th years of Elizabeth were
directed, to prevent the destruction of timber trees
which were necessary to maintain the wooden walls
and maritime power of England. But in spite of
statutes the waste went on. Postlethwayt writing
in 1766, says,* " The waste and destruction that has
been of the woods in Warwick, Stafford, Worcester,
Hereford, Monmouth, Gloucester, Glamorgan, Pem-
broke, Shropshire and Sussex, by the iron-works, is
not to be imagined. The scarcity of wood is thereby
already grown so great, that where cord wood has
been sold at five or six shillings per cord, within
these few yeaxs it is now risen to upwards of twelve
or fourteen shillings, and in some places is all con-
sumed. And if some care is not taken to preserve
our timber from these consuming furnaces^ we shall
certainly soon stand in need of oak to supply the
royal navy, and also shipping for the use of the
merchants, to the great discouragement of ship-
building and navigation, upon which the safety and
figure of these kingdoms, as a maritime power,
depends.^'

Now, I particularly beg attention to the curious

* Commercial Dictionary, Art. Coal,

The Qxd Question.

fact that about the end of the l7th century, the
iron manufacture to some extent migiated to Ireland.
The woods of that country were fuU of timber when
those of England were nearly exhausted. The trade
fit once followed the/uel in spke of a want of ore
ill Ireland. As appears in tables of Irish exports,
and in Sir F. Brewster's New Essays on Trade,' of
the year 1702, Ireland became an iron exporting
country. Sir William Temple says,' " Iron seems to
me the manufacture that of all others ought the
least to be encouraged in Ireland ; or if it be, which
requires the most restriction to certain places and
Kules. For I do not remember to have heard that
there is any ore in Ireland, at least I am sure that
the greatest part is fetched from England ; so that
all this country affords of its own growth towards
this manufacture, is but the wood, which has met
but with too great consumptions already in most
parts of this kingdom, and needs not this to destroy
what is left So that Iron-works ought to be con-
fined to certain places, where cither the woods
continue vast, and make the country savage ; or
where they are not at aU fit for timber, or likely to
grow to it ; or where there is no conveyance for

' Pp. fi-J, &0.

' EBsay upon the Advaiicenicnt of Trade in IreliUid, Worku, 172(1,

Of the Iron Trade. 283

timber to places of vent, so as to quit the cost of
the carriage/' ^

Postlethwayt alludes to the migration of the
manufacture and the necessary result. " It is gene-
rally allowed, that within about these seventy years,
Ireland was better stored with oak-timber than
England ; but several gentlemen from hence, as well
as those residing there, set up iron-works, which, in
a few years, swept away the wood to that degree,
that they have had even a scarcity of small stuff to
produce bark for their tanning, nor scarce timber
for their common and necessary uses."

When Ireland was in a condition to compete with
England in a given manufacture, no artificial en-
couragement was needed. Frequent attempts on
the other hand were made to gain a supply of iron
from our American plantations. " Certainly,'' as
Evelyn remarked, " the goodly rivers and forests of
the other world would much better become our iron
and saw-mills, than these exhausted countreys, and
we prove gainers by the timely removal." But
perhaps from the want of labour, American iron
could not compete with continental iron.

Now England had for a length of time made and
used much iron. "The Forest of Deane," says
Yarranton, "is, as to the iron, to be compared to
the sheep's back, as to the woollen ; nothing being

284 The Coal Question.

of more advantage to England than these two are."
And the Commanders of the Spanish Armada are
said to have had especial orders to destroy the
Forest of Deane, as being a main source of England's
strengtL And though coal could not yet be used
in the smelting-fumace, it had long been chiefly
used in the finery, the chafery, and the blacksmith's
hearth. A great portion of the coal and culm that
had for centuries been exported to France, and the
coasts of the Northern Sea, was used in the smithy.
And it was undoubtedly the abundance of coal that
reared, from early times, the iron-working arts at
SheJSeld, Dudley, and Birmingham.

When our home production of iron was rapidly
failing there was a considerable demand for foreign
iron in England. Hewitt, in his Statistics of the
Iron Trade,* after expressing his surprise that in
1740 the total produce of England was only 17,350
tons, made in 59 furnaces, adds his conviction that
the total production of Europe at the time did not
exceed 100,000 tons, of which 60,000 were made
in the forest countries of Sweden, Norway, and
Eussia. One half of this was imported into England.
The consumption of iron in England, he thinks,
was 1 5 lbs. per head of the population, while in

* Statistics and Geography of the Production of Iron : New York,
1856, p. 7.

Of the Iron Trade. 285

Europe, on the average, it did not exceed 2 lbs. Of
the iron we used, four-fifths were considered to be
imported from one country or another. Joshua Gee,
too, speaks of our market as " the most considerable
in Europe for the vast consumption of iron," and
represents the Swedes, Danes, and Eussians as striv-
ing to gain our market.^ Our production of iron
by the middle of the century was believed to have
declined to one-tenth part of its former amount, and
the high cost of foreign iron formed the main check
upon the progress of those arts which were to be so
great. By this time the substitution of coal for
charcoal had become a necessity. Postlethwayt, in
a pamphlet possessed by the Statistical Society,^
describes the condition of the iron-trade in 1747,
remarking that "England not being so woody a
country as either Sweden or Eussia, we do not
abound, nor ever shall, with a sufficiency of wood-
coal ; " and that as cord-wood was doubled, or
trebled in price, dx or eight times dearer than pit-
^ and ve^ dear co^p^d with i.a priced
foreign iron-making countries, it was no wonder
home-made iron decreased. This scarcity of wood
was really due of ^ ,» the superio/proats to

* Trade and Navigation of Great Britain, 1738, p. 104.

* Considerations on the making of Bar Iron with Pit or Sea Coal
Fire, 1747.

The Coal

be derived from using the land as pasture. Norden
allowed this a centiuy before : " The cleansing of
many of these welde grounds hath redounded rather
to the benefite, tlian to the hurt* of the countrey :
for where woods diti growe in superfluous abundance
there was lacke of pasture, for kine, and of arable
land for corne."

And Houghton had acutely anticipated the sub-
sequent course of things by suggesting that it would
be profitable to cut down all wood, near navigable
waters where coal could be had, of which he re-
marked ive had enough.^

To make ii-on with pit-coal waa the gi-eat problem,
the practical solution of which was all important to
the nation.

It was no new notion. From the early part of
the seventeenth century it had been the object of
eager experiments, and the cause of ruin to many
of the experimenters. The history of the establish-
ment of our great iron trade has been described in
the works of Mr. Smiles, Dr. Percy, and others, but it
possesses points of inte-rest which we cannot pass over.

Simon Sturtevant, a German metallurgist, about
1612, was the first to take out a patent for making
iron with pit-coal. His specification of the inven-

' Houghton'B Collection of Letters for the Improyeiueiit of Hiia
bsndry and Trade, 1727-1728, Tol. iv. p. 2B9.

Of the Iron Trade, 287

tion, entitled a Treatise of Metallica, is an eccentric
but clever production. In the practical part of his
work he seems to have had less success than in the
literary ; and others who followed up his notions —
mostly Dutchmen and Germans, such as Eovenson,
Jorden, Franche, and Sir Phillibert Vernalt, had no
more success.

The following verses of the year 1633 quaintly
allude to such attempts : —

" The yron mills are excellent for that ;
I haye a patent draune to that effect ;
If they goe up, downe goe the goodly trees.
FU make them search the earth to find new fire." *

It was Dud Dudley, a natural son of Lord Dud-
ley, of Dudley Castle, manager of his father's iron
forges in the neighbourhood, who, in 1621, first
succeeded in smelting iron with coal. According to
his own account in his " Metallum Martis," he made
considerable quantities of pit-coal iron at Cradley,
Pensnet, Himley, and Sedgley. But various disas-
ters and troubles, the jealousy of other iron-masters,
and the civil strife of the time, frustrated all his
undertakings, and left him a ruined man. His
history may be read in his own work, or in Mr.
Smiles' " Industrial Biography."

* The Costlie Whore, quoted by Percy, Metallurgy of Iron and
Steel, p. 144.

288 The Coal Question.

Dudley's invention, it would seem probable, de-
pended upon charking or coking the coal, in a
manner analogous to the making of wood charcoal.
The coke thus prepared was comparatively free from
sulphur, and more readily gave a strong heat
Dudley was thus able, according to his own account,
to make five or seven tons of iron a week ; selling
his pig-iron at U. per ton, and his bar-iron at 12/.,
while charcoal iron cost in pigs 6Z. or 7Z., and in
bars 15l. or ISl. He relied for commercial success
upon the cheapness of his iron compared with its
fair quaUty, and he expresses clearly the true in-
ducing cause and purpose of his invention, " know-
ing that if there could be any use made of the small-
coales that are of little use, then would they be drawn
out of the Pits, which coles produceth oftentimes
great prejudice unto the owners of the works and
the work itself, and also unto the colliers.'' ^

The almost gratuitous use of fuel thus alluded to
obviously led to Dudley's remarkable efforts towards
our great manufacture. After Dudley's misfortunes
his invention was not followed up. The want of
wood was not yet severely felt, and the owners of
woodland country and iron forges, of course, con-
sidered their interest in the charcoal iron manufac-
ture as one to be protected. When Dr. Plot wrote

^ Metalluin Martis, London, 1665, p. 8.

0/ the Iron Trade. 289

his curious " Natural History of Staffordshire,'* the
making of pit-coal iron was a matter of unfortunate
history, and he speaks of a certain German, Dr.
Blewstone, as making " the last eflfort in that country
to smelt iron ore with pit-coal." ^

Thus the matter rested for half a century. The
iron trade, which Andrew Yarranton, about this
time, truly designated the keystone of England's
industrial prosperity, was checked by the high and
rising price of the metal ; and the efforts made to
get iron from Ireland, or the Transatlantic Planta-
tions, had but a slight or temporary success.

It was Abraham Darby who revived the forgotten
method of smelting with pit-coal. The earliest ad-
venturers in the process, we have seen, were Ger-
mans, and it is curious that the success of the
Darby family was founded upon foreign experience.
The eldest Abraham Darby went over to Holland in
1706, and learnt the method of casting hollow iron
pots, or Hilton ware, as it was then called. Bring-
ing over skilled Dutch workmen, he took out a
patent to protect his newly-acquired process, and
then, in 170.9, started the celebrated Coalbrookdale
works in Shropshire. At first the oak and hazel
woods furnished fuel, but the supply presently
proving insufficient for the growing trade, it became

1 Smiles' Industrial Biogniphy, p. 77.

290 The Coal QueMion.

customary to mix coke and brays, or small coke
with the charge of fuel Eventually when an in-
creased blast was obtained, coke took the place of
charcoal entirely.

There is much uncertainty and discrepancy con-
cerning the history of the Coalbrookdale Works.
Scrivenor, in his " History of the Iron Trade/' repre-
sents pit-coal as used in 1713. Dr. Percy, on the
other hand, describes the younger Abraham Darby
as first employing raw coal in the smelting furnace
between the years 1730 and 1735.

In his first successful experiment he is said to
have watched the filling of his furnace for six days
and nights uninterruptedly, falling into a deep sleep
when he saw the molten iron running forth. The
success of the work was probably secured by the
erection of a water-wheel of twenty-four feet dia-
meter, capable of giving a powerful blast. But
water was scarce, and a fire-engine, or old atmo-
' spheric steam-engine, was set up to pump back the
water from the lower to the upper mill-pond. Here
is one of those significant instances which teach us
the power of coal and the interdependence of the
arts. Employed in this engine as a source of
motive power, it enabled coal to be also used in the
smelting-furnace. And this is typical of the iron
trade, as it is of other trades to the present day ;

Of the Iron Tmde. 291

for our iron industry in all its developments is as
dependent on coal for motive power as for fuel in
the fiimace.

In December, 1 756, we find the works " at the
top pinnacle of prosperity, twenty or twenty-two
tons per week, and sold oflF as fast as made, at
profit enough-" And from this time and from this
success arose England's material power. To this
invention, says M^Culloch, " this country owes
more perhaps than to any one else."*

The subsequent history of the iron trade is best
to be read in the growth of its produce. Already
in 1788 the produce had risen to 68,300 tons, and
the increase has since proceeded, as we have seen, in
a nearly constant rate of multiplication.*

The chief difficulty experienced in the extension
of the trade was the want of motive power. Thus
Mr. J. Cookson introduced the coal iron manufacture
into the Newcastle district, the blast being worked
by a water-wheel on Chester Bum. But " frequent
interruption for want of water to drive their wheel,
led at length to the furnace being 'gobbed,' and
ultimately abandoned, about the close of the last
century.'' '

Eoebuck originated the great iron trade of Scot-

* Literature of Political Economy, p. 238. » Page 192.

3 Report of the British Association, 1863, p. 738.

U 2

292 The Coal Question.

land, and his success was due to the command of
a good blast.

" Dr. Eoebuck was one of the first to employ coal
in iron-smelting on a large scale, and for that
purpose he required the aid of the most powerful
blowing apparatus that could be procured. Mr.
Smeaton succeeded in contriving and fixing for
him, about the year 1768, a highly effective machine
of this kind, driven by a water-wheeL" ^ This con-
trivance is said to have been the blowing cylinder
now used.*

Wilkinson was another great promoter of the iron
manufacture, and his success arose from applying
the steam-engine directly to work the blast-engine
of his furnace near Bilston in Staffordshire.'

Cort's improvements in the puddling, faggoting,
and rolling of iron blooms followed. The extensive
use of such improvements depends upon the use of
coal as the only fuel sufficiently abundant for the
puddling, or reheating furnaces, and to supply the
enormous power required in rolling iron bars of
large size.'

The discovery of the hot-blast process by Mr.
Mushet is the next great step, and, in fact, one of

* Smiles' Engineers, vol. ii. p. 61.

* Percy's Metallurgy, Iron, p. 889.
^ History of Wednesbury, p. 116.

Of the Iron Trade. 293

the most surprising instances of economy in the
history of the Arts. Ironmasters had previously
adhered to the mistaken notion that a very cool
blast was essential to making good iron, and some
even tried the use of ice in cooling the air of the
blast. But when a blast of air, hot enough to melt
lead, was used instead, the consumption of coal per
ton of cast iron made, was reduced from seven tons
to two or two and a half tons. But was this
enormous saving equivalent to a decrease of con-
sumption ? The produce of pig iron in Scotland
has increased as follows : —

Tons.

1820 20,000

1830 37,600

1839 200,000

1861 776,000

1863 1,160,000

Now, if we compare the consumption of coal in
1830 and 1863, we find :

37,500 X 7 tons = 262,500 tons of coal.
1,160,000 X 2 tons = 2,320,000 „

or the consumption of coal was increased tenfold,
not to speak of the consumption of coal in puddling
or working the iron, or in the machine industry
which cheap iron promotes.

A subsequent step of economy has been the utiliza-
tion of the waste gases of the blast-furnace in heating

294 The Coed Question.

the blast, or the boilers of the steam-engines which
drive the blast-engine. This improvement, however,
was adopted extensively on the Continent, and in
the United States, before it was introduced here in
1845. Now it is applied in South Wales, Scotland,
and Derbyshire with perfect success.^

The most recent, and one of the most ingenious
improvements of the iron manufacture, that of Mr.
Bessemer, needs only a brief notice. At present,
indeed, the process is but half completed, because
the stream of air forced through the molten cast-
iron is found to remove only the carbon and the
silicon, leaving the injurious elements, sulphur and
phosphorus, nearly untouched.^ It is, therefore,
necessary to use in the making of Bessemer steel,
ores which are free from impurities, and the price
of the steel must remain high. But if Mr. Bessemer
could remove the phosphorus, too, and make all om-
poor iron into good steel, the invention would only
be one of those modes of economy, which in
reducing the cost of a most valuable material, lead
to an indefinite demand. It would, indeed, be one
of the greatest advances in the arts ever achieved.
Such are the wonderful qualities of steel, that if it

^ H. Blackwell, Iron-making Resources of the United Kingdom,
1852, p. 174.
2 Percy's Metallurgy of Iron and Steel, p. 817.

Of the Iron Trade. 295

were cheap enough, its uses would be infinite. Our
engines, machines, vessels, raikoads, conveyances,
furniture would all be made of it, with an immense
improvement in strength, durability, and lightness.
Our whole industry would be thrown into a new
state of progre^. It would be like a repetition of
that substitution of iron for wood, in mill work,
which Brindley, and Smeaton, and Eennie brought
about And by still further multiplying the value
of our coal and iron resources, it would accelerate
alike our present growth and the future exhaustion
of our resources.

When we reflect upon the conditions of our great
production of iron, we shall see them to consist,
apart from the ingenuity and perseverance which
gave us the inventions, in the following —

1. Cheapness and excellence of fuel.

2. Proximity of fuel, ores, and fluxes.

Of the first little need here be said. It will bo
remembered that the first success of Dudley was
obtained in the neighbourhood of the " Thick coal,"
where, up to the end of last century, coal was a
" drug," and almost the same may be said of Coal-
brookdale, where the final success was attained.
And now, whether in South Wales, Scotland, York-
shire, Staffordshire, or Northumberland, the. iron

296 The Coal Question.

manufacture most flourishes where suitable coal is
to be had at the lowest rate.

As regards the second condition, it has been the
constant reflection of English writers that the co-
existence of the materials of the iron-manufacture
was not undesigned. As Conybeare says, "The
occurrence of this most useful of metals, in imme-
diate connexion with the fuel requisite for its re-
duction, and the limestone which facilitates that
reduction, is an instance of arrangement so happily
suited to the purposes of human industry, that it
can hardly be considered as recurring unnecessarily
to final causes, if we conceive that this distribution
of the rude materials of the earth was determined
with a view to the convenience of its inhabitants."
In South Wales, Staffordshire, and elsewhere, there
are often found in conjunction the coal, ironstone,
limestone flux, as well as the refractory clay and
gritstone necessary for the construction of the
furnaces. The fact, however, is, that this is rapidly
becoming an imaginary condition of our trade.
The exhaustion of the ironstone seams in some
places, the cost of working them in others, the
increased facilities of transport by rail, new dis-
coveries of superior ore, are rendering our iron-
works more and more dependent on distant supplies
of ore. Scrivenor says, " The great superiority of

Of the Iron Trade. 297

our iron manufacture has generally been considered
(independently of the excellent quality of the coal)
to consist in having all the materials necessary to
the manufacture found on, or immediately in the
neighbourhood of the very spot where the furnaces
are erected South Staffordshire, 05 it wets, will
serve to illustrate this point — ^abundance of good
coal — amongst other seams that of the tenyard —
excellent ironstone and limestone; this last from
Dudley; celebrated for its beautiful fossil slabs;
but now limestone is brought from the vale of
Llangollen, and the ironmasters are looking to Nor-
thamptonshire and other places to assist them with
the required supply of ironstone. Is not this, as
regards South Staffordshire, the beginning of an
end ? "

" This scarcity of materials is certainly most
beneficial to districts where, from the want of coal,
it was never contemplated having any share in the
manufacture of iron ; but it alters the general cha-
racter of the circumstances under which we have
been accustomed to view our superiority, and casts
the first shadow upon the iron trade/' *

Blackwell, in his lecture on the Iron Kesources
of Britain, although asserting that ** in no other
countries does this proximity of ore and fuel exist

^ Scrivenor on the Iron Trade, p. 301.

298 The Coal Question.

to the same extent as in England," * describes how
the facilities of transport are developing a new
system. The iron trade, he says, fosters itself by
its own creation, the railroad. It is by this, that
the new-discovered, or rather the re-discovered ores
in the oolitic formation, stretching obliquely across
England, are available, saving the North of England
and the South Staffordshire iron-works from stoppage
under the competition of the Scotch blackband
works. Of South Staffordshire he says : " Hitherto
the second most important iron district in the king-
dom, it could no longer have maintained its ground
against other localities had it not been for this dis-
covery. South Wales had its cheap an<J good coals,
its blackbands, and its supplies of sea-borne haema-
tites, as well as its own argillaceous ironstones ;
Scotland its beds of blackbands ; and the North of
England its oolitic ores ; but up to the present time
South Staffordshire had only its argillaceous iron-
stones, always the most expensive to raise, with such
admixture of haematite and North Staffordshire
stone, as the great cost of carriage would permit." *
It is even possible that recourse will some day be
had to the Wealden ores, used in the old charcoal
iron-works of Sussex, and which are both rich and
plentiful, though too distant from coal for present
use.

^ Page 150. 2 Blackwell, p. 165.

Of the livn Trade. 2iHi

It is an aU-important fact of this subject^ that
the ore is carried to the fuel, not the fuel to the
ore. This was the case when the pack-hoiise con-
veyed ore to the forges situated among the wood
lands which supplied the charcoal. When timljer-
fuel was abundant in Ireland, ore was sent thither
from England. In the still earlier times of the fo<3t-
blast the smelting hearth was shifted al)out the hills
to the parts most abounding in timber, as may be
inferred from heaps of scoria scattered here and
there up to the very summit of the hills. And it
is the case now with all our superior means of
transport and diminished consumption of fuel. The
same fact is found elsewhere.

*' Prussia is rich in iron ores, but they seldom
occur along with the coal. In former times, the
blast-furnaces were built where wood abounded and
water power was available ; but in later times, as
the use of coal and coke became more and more
general, it was found that the coal-basins were the
fittest localities for the erection of works, as it was
more easy and economical to take the ore to the fuel
than the fuel to the ore.'' ^

Let us now consider the present position and
prospects of the English iron manufacture compara-
tively to those of other countries. The following

^ Percy's Metallurgy of Iron, p. 564.

300 The Coal Question.

are the amounts of pig iron produced by the three
chief iron making nations in 1862.

Tons.

Great Britain 3,943,469

France 1,053,000

United States 884,474

If the produce of all other countries were added in
it would still be found, no doubt, that our produce
exceeds that of the rest of the world, in spite
of the recent rapid progress of the manufacture in
France and America. Not long ago our exports of
iron were scarcely inferior to the gross produce of
the rest of the world} This is not due to the
quality of our iron. On the contrary, our cheap
iron is some of the worst made anywhere. If we
compare European iron-producing countries as to
the quality and quantity of produce, the following
are the orders, the higher place denoting the higher
quality or quantity.^

Quality of Iron. Quantity of Iron.

Sweden. England.

Belgium. France.

Prussia. Austria.

Austria. Prussia.

France. Sweden.

England. Belgium.

The inferiority of our iron is due to the sulphur,
phosphorus, or other impurities of our fuel and ore.

^ Truran on the Iron Manufacture of Great Britain, pp. iii. iv.
^ Canada at the Universal Exhibition of 1855, p. 296.

Of the Iron Trade. 301

It is on this account that steel, even in Mr.
Bessemer's process, has to be made from Swedish
iron or other choice metal. And the exceptionally
fine and high-priced English iron made by the Low
Moor and Bowling Companies is chiefly due to the
quality of the coal used.

The vast extension of our manufacture, then, is
due to cheapness^ and this is the point of all impor-
tance in the great mass of cases, — in bridges, rails,
ships, heavy framework, pipes, fences, &c. The use
of iron is altogether boundless, provided it can be
had cheap enough. As Dr. Percy remarks, in spite
of the marvellous advancement of the iron trade,
" yet it may be safely aflSrmed that the uses of iron
will be vastly more extended than at present, and
that there is no just ground for apprehension lest
there should be over-produce of this precious metal.
Even the railway system is in a state of rapid
growth, and the time will come, when every habit-
able part of the earth's surface will be reticulated
with iron or steel roads."

Of the greatly increased supplies of iron required
in the future general progress of nations, we shall
continue for many years to supply a large part,
and to enjoy the wealth and influence which it gives
us. But this cheapness depends upon raising coal
from our mines and running it into our furnaces at

302 The Coal Question.

a very low price. Now low prices cannot hold very
long with a consumption of coal growing as it has
been shown to grow. Were there no other demands
upon the South Wales and Scotch coal-fields than
that of the iron trade, yet this is of so unlimited
an extent that sooner or later the voracious iron-
fiimaces will exhaust our seams as they exhausted
our woods. And the result must be a new migra-
tion of our great trade.

It is impossible there should be two opinions as
to the future seat of the iron trade. The abundance
and purity of both fuel and ore in the United States,
with the commercial enterprise of American manu-
facturers, puts the question beyond doubt.

" In the North,'' says Dr. Percy, " the indefinite
expansion of the anthracite iron manufacture is
equally certain, whatever may be the policy of the
government, or the result of the present civil war.
The wonderful iron-ore wealth of New Jersey has
hardly yet been explored ; and another anthracite
iron region about Morristown would abeady have
been added to the rest, had there been any direct
facilities for bringiDg the coal to the ore. Now that
the Carbondale, or Wyoming coal basin, and the
Mohanoy or middle coal basin have both been
opened up to the Hudson river market, the vast
magnetic ore beds of Lake Cliamplain will have

Of the Iron Trade. 303

many more high stacks erected near them than
those which already stand upon the shore. Some
of these are noble works, mounted on iron pillars.
But the principal manufacture must always cling to
the Lehigh and Schuykill, and Lower Susquehanna
valleys in Pennsylvania, where the ore is abundant,
the coal near at hand, and the flux on the spot;
where the whole land is a garden, and therefore food
cheap and labour plentiful, and the great seaports
not fax off." '

The American iron manufacture has been retarded
by two chief causes.

1. The fact that the coal, ore, and flux are not in
such close conjunction as in England.

2. The high rate of wages in the United States.
The fiirst obstacle, however, will disappear. The

Americans, of all people in the world, are the most
forward in driving canals, river navigations, and
railways where profit can be made. And while the
materials of the iron manufacture are being wedded
together in the States, our iron-masters, as we have
seen, are seeking their materials at greater distances.
The very railway system, which is said to have saved
the North of England and the South Staffordshire

* Percy's Metallurgy, Iron and Steel, p. 382. The last remarks are
mistaken, in their present application, as will be explained in the fol-
lowing chapter.

304 The Coal Question.

iron works from a scarcity of materials, will enable
the Americans to overcome their great obstacle,
and thus one supposed pre-eminent advantage of
the English manufacture becomes illusory.

The high rate of wages in a new country like the
States is a true and natural obstacle to the progress
of a manufacture, but, as we shall see in the next
chapter, it is one that time will overcome.

If the Americans have obstacles to overcome, they
have advantages in cheap and good mineral fuel,
which cannot be overestimated. The anthracite of
Mauch Chunck, or the bituminous coal of Ohio, is
got almost for the mere price of quarr3ring, as coal
used to be got in Staffordshire, and it is laying
the foundation there, as it did here, of a great iron-
working industry. Pittsburg is the American Shef-
field and Wolverhampton. The steel as well as the
iron manufacture has made a secure lodgment there/
and its development is a question only of time.

1 Percy's Metallurgy, of Iron, p. 381.

The Problem of the Trading Bodies. 305

CHAPTER XV.

THE PROBLEM OP THE TRADING BODIES.

The position of this country in future years will
not be rightly appreciated if we confine our atten-
tion near home. Without foreign commerce, but
with our coal, it is possible we might have done
much that we have done, but we could never have
supported- such masses of busy population, enjoyed
such a variety of foreign products, or reared such a
great system of industry. We should have been
a happy, ingenious, self-dependent people, but not
numerous, nor rich, and neither endowed with our
present world-wide influence, nor subjected to its
dangers and responsibilities.

But as we are, unfettered commerce, vindicated
by our political economists, and founded on the
material basis of our coal resources, has made the
several quarters of the globe our willing tributaries.
"Though England,'' it has been truly said, "were
one vast rock, where not an acre of corn had ever

306 The Coal Question,

waved, still those four hundred minions of men,
whose labour is represented by the machinery of the
country, would extort an abundance of com from
all the surrounding states/'^ The plains of North
America and Kussia axe our corn-fields— Chicago
and Odessa our granaries; Canada and the Baltic
are our timber-forests ; Australasia contains our
sheep-farms, and in South America are our herds of
oxen ; Peru sends her sUver, and the gold of Cali-
fornia and Australia flows to London ; the Chinese
grow tea for us, and our cofiee, sugar, and spice
plantations are in all the Indies. Spain and France
are our vineyards, and the Mediterranean our fruit-
garden; and our cotton-grounds, which formerly
occupied the Southern United States, are now every-
where in the warm regions of the earth.

But great as is our own system, it is not the
whole. Commerce is undoubtedly making its way
by its own subtle force, and is uniting the parts of
the globe into a web of interchanges, in which the
peculiar riches of each are made useful to alL The
sum of human happiness is thus being surely in-
creased, but we should be hasty in assuming that
the growth of general commerce ensures for this
island everlasting riches and industrial supremacy.

We ought not to forget that the enjoyments of

^ H. Fairbaim, Political Economy oi Railroads, p. 113.

The Problem of the Trading Bodies, 307

a commercial country are not without probable
drawbacks. We are no longer independent. The
rise and decadence of other trading nations is no
longer a matter of indifference to us. Our profits
depend upon comparative not absolute riches, and
as an individual nation we may find harm in foreign
wealth.

And our anxiety must be indefinitely increased in
reflecting that while other countries mostly subsist
upon the annual and ceaseless incom£> of the
harvest, we are drawing m/yre and rnore upon a
capital which yields no annual interest, but once
turned to Ught and heat and force, is gone for ever
into space.

So faar indeed as trade is dependent on legislation
and social and political conditions, its future must
be almost wholly uncertain and beyond the reach of
reasoning. The development of history cannot be
predicted, for in the " still and mental parts " of a
single unborn individual may reside the forces which
are to launch forth a nation's greatness and disturb
the world. But industry and riches must have a
material basis, and it is in this respect their future
course comes somewhat within the grasp of science.
The principles of economy have been so far investi-
gated by our own writers, that with given material
conditions the tendency of trade may often be

308 The Coal Question.

certainly inferred. And if we may assume that the
spirit of commercial freedom will spread and snflFer
no serious relapse, it is quite possible to foresee the
necessary course of trade.

Taking commerce as the free growth of the in-
stincts of gain, we find it resolved into a case of
complex attractions and perturbations, as between
several gravitating bodies. Trade between two
bodies is a case of simple attraction, each naturally
attracting and buying the articles which are made
with greater comparative facility and cheapness
by the other, paying with its own comparatively
cheaper products. There is or should be no com-
petition between them; each state should develop
the kinds of industry and sources of wealth opposite
to those of the other state. Free interchange of
products then raises the economy of labour to its
highest pitch.

In proportion, too, as the circumstances or in-
dustries of two states are more diverse, will trade be-
tween them be more to the advantage of each. Two
countries whose circumstances are exactly alike can
have no motive to trade with each other. Prices
will bear the same proportions in each, and thus will
be no margin of profit on exchange, even to pay the
freight. And this result will hold too even if one
country were naturally richer in every way than

The Problem of the Trading Bodies. 309

another, provided it were in every particular equally
richer. Thus if a man with a given amount of
labour could raise both twice as much corn and
twice as much wool in Australia as in England, we
could have no trade with Australia in these articles.
But if the same labour could raise twice as much
wool but only just as much com, there as here,
profit will evidently be gained on the exchange of
wool and com. To the writings of Ricardo, and
especially of John Stuart Mill,^ we are indebted for
the discovery and distinct enumeration of these
principles.

When three states trade with each other the
problem is one of some complexity. A state possess-
ing any peculiar kind of riches may profit and
confer profit by trade with each of the other two,
and the highest advantage will arise when each
devotes its labour exclusively to kinds of industry
in which it has comparatively the greatest facilities,
or natural riches. If two of the states, however,
are of similar ckcumstances, they cannot trade with
each other but only each of them with the third.
And the total trade will have to be shared between
the two similar states in some proportion to their

^ Principles of Political Economy, book iii. chap. xvii. ; or, Essays on
some unsettled questions of Political Economy. Essay Na 1.

The subject " Of the Competition of Different Countries in the sanie
Market " is treated by J. S. Mill. Principles, book iii. chap. xxv.

310

rfte Coal QueMion.

absolute capacities of production. For if one had
a larger share than this, its powers would be harder
pushed and prices somewhat raised, which would
at once cause trade to flow more towards the other
similar state. If one of these similar states were to
grow in absolute powers of production it nmst take
a greater share of the trade with the third state and
positively abstract a portion of the trade between
the other two, to the injury not of the third, but of
the second similar state.

The question is now sufficiently complex to illus-
trate our actual position. In reality the countries
we trade with present a problem of almost infinite
complexity, but for simplicity we may form a few
great groups according to similarities of condition.
Five groups may be made to comprehend all coun-
tries with which we have relations of importance to
our present subject.

1. Great Britain, capable for the present of inde-
finitely producing all products depending on the use
of coal.

2. Continental Europe, capable of an indefinite
production of artistic, luxurious, or semi-tropical
products, but debarred by comparative want of coal
from competition with us.

3. Tropical, Eastern and other regions, capable of
upplying food and raw materials, but of climate,

The Problem of the Trading Bodies. 311

and other natural conditions wholly different from
those of Great Britain.

4. Australasian, Afiican and American colonies,
capable of an immense production of raw materials,
but endowed with no considerable coal resource&

5. United States of North America, capable of an
immense production of com and raw materials, but
also possessing coal deposits thirty-seven times as
great as our own.

At present Great Britain carries on a growing
trade with all the other four bodies. The older
nations of Europe, indeed, check the trade by
restrictions upon the repeal of which we cannot
certainly count. Our trade with Western Europe,
too, is of a different character from that we enjoy
elsewhere, because as the ancient seat of the arts,
and endowed with considerable mineral riches, we
find there our own superiors in many finer kinds of
manufacture. With respect to France and Western
Europe, then, we are mainly producers or traders
in raw materials. Towards the Tropical, Eastern,
Colonial, and American bodies, in fact to the world
generally, we are manufacturers, seeking materials to
operate, or food to live upon, and giving in exchange
the products of our machine labour.

Suppose trade to spread according to that spirit
of progress which seems almost the established order

312 The Coal Question.

of things. For many years to come our relations
will remain of the same kind as at present Europe
will receive more and more crude iron, coal, metals,
and other materials, returning food, or elegant
articles, while other parts of the world wiU take
more finished products and return their appropriate
raw materials. Wherever we trade it will be upon
coal, or its more or less refined products. There is
no saying that we may not thus progress for the
greater part of a century, allowing our manufactur-
ing population to quadruple itself, and our industry
to multiply itself many times.

I^et us now consider the changes that are going
on within the several trading bodies. In Great
Britain the agricultural population is about sta-
tionary, and its ofispring has to find employment in
the towns, or else to emigrate. So familiar too is
emigration becoming to us, so great are the facilities
and foreign attractions to it, and so congenial is it
to the British character to seek independence and
adventure across the seas, that a continuous exodus
of our population is already a necessity. Our emi-
grants either reside as agents and merchants in
foreign ports and countries where they powerfully
stimulate trade with England, or they settle in the
colonies and States of which they increase the pro-
ductive powers. And we must not forget that ito

The Problem of the Trading Bodies. 313

kindred nations of Germany are suffering an exodus
almost comparable to our own, and are similarly
contributing to the growth of our colonies and the
United States.

Supposing protective and restrictive tendencies
not to gain ground, we shall continue to grow on
the one side as a great manufacturing body, while
the colonies and most foreign states will find a
source of wealth and advantage in suppljdng us
with raw materials and developing the kinds of in-
dustry for which their facilities are almost boundless
as compared with ours.

But the growth of production cannot go on ad
infinitum ; natural limits will ultimately be reached
on the side both of the agricultural and of the
manufacturing country even if no political events
intervene to check the trade. Suppose, however,
some event, it matters not of what kind, to occur
and prevent our growing population from meeting
a corresponding increase of subsistence. From
established habits of prosperity and early marriage
we shall continue to grow with a certain inertia, but
the rising generation will not find the comfort and
early independence they were brought up to expect.
They will turn to emigration as a congenial resource,
and apply their labour to stimulate trade and the
production of raw materials in many parts of the

314 The Coal Question.

world. The corresponding demand for our manu-
factures will then tend to support, or revive the
progress of industry at home, and maintain the long
existing rate of multiplication.

It is by a process of this sort that the recent
emigration, incited to a great extent by the gold
discoveries, has contributed to the late extraordinary
increase of wealth. It has encouraged our popula-
tion to adopt new habits of early marriage. And
in America, Australia, Africa, Asia, and the Pacific
Archipelago there are open lands and undeveloped
natural resources which still admit of a vast exten-
sion and continuance of the same process.

Not to speak of the maritime nations, especially
the Spanish and the Dutch who preceded us in ex-
tensive colonization, the custom of planting out
colonies with us dates back three centuries, to the
time of Queen Elizabeth. And early as 1681 an
English writer* clearly explained that plantations
were not an exhausting drain upon the mother
country, but rather " a wheel to set most of our
other trades agoing.'^

"The plantations," he said, "do not depopulate,
but rather increase, or improve our people," and
they " have increast the profitable employments, not

* John Houghton. Collection of Letters for the Improvement of
Husbandry and Trade. London, 1681, pp. 35, 36.

The Problem of the Trading Bodies. 315

only by building of ships, carrying out our manu-
factures and products thither, but also by returning
theirs hither to supply ourselves, and also a great
part of the rest of the world/^

When we look either to the trade the colonies
carry on with us, to the internal happiness they
enjoy, or the benefits which they promise to the
world in the future, it is impossible to overvalue the
Anglo Saxon spirit of colonization. But when we
follow out a policy of free colonization to its neces-
sary ultimate result, the prospect is more pleasing
to a citizen of the world than to a citizen of this
small kingdom. For free and voluntary emigration
enables and induces our home population to go on
multiplying at high rates, otherwise impossible. Not
only then have we a growing population, but a
growing margin also, who, even in times of the
highest prosperity, must seek abroad the subsistence
not to be had at home. The longer our prosperity
continues unslackened the more necessary a free
outlet wiU become. But the moment to be appre-
hended is when the first general check to our
prosperity and growth at home is encountered.
Then the larger part of the rising generation will
find themselves superfluous, and must either leave
the country in a vast body, or remain here to create
painful pressure and poverty. A less active people

316 T%e Coal Question.

than the English might endure the latter alternative
and sink by degrees into the stationary condition
which characterised some continental nations, and
England herself in the early part of the last century.
But we may well refuse to look forward to such a
change here, so painful must be the depravation of
habits and the disappointment of the best hopes
which must accompany it. Nor could we feel sure
that even our popular institutions could pass un-
harmed through a period of general pressure and
want of employment among a vast artizan popula-
tion.

The alternative, I say, is wholesale emigration.
"The only immediate remedy," says Mr. Senior,^
" for an actual excess in one class of the population,
is the ancient and approved one, coloniain deducere.
... It is a remedy preparatory to the adoption and
necessary to the safety of every other." We have
seen in the chapter on Population how our agri-
cultural districts in 1811-31 passed through a
period of pauperism and excess of population due
to an unwarranted growth of population. The
gravest fears for our social soundness were excited,
and the evil was only overcome by extensive migra-
tion into our towns and colonies. The Scotch
Highlands, and more lately Ireland, have presented

^ Three Lectures on Wages. Preface, p. v.

The Prohlem of the Trading Bodies. 317

still more striking inatances of the choice between
pressure at homCj or migration abroad. It is only
a question of time when our whole population
including that of our present most progressive
towns will be placed in the same dilemma, and the
result must be a vast and continuous exodus.

But now comes the most serious point of all. After

a certain period emigration will begin to have a

very different effect upon the destinies of this country

from that it now exercises. Instead of extending

across the seas an agricultuml system in harmonious

union, with oui' own manufacturing system, it will

develop, or rather complete abroad, systems of iron

and coal industry in direct competition with ours.

. The process wiH be of a two-sided natui'e,

I It is well known that in spreading over a new

' country, settlers are naturally apt to exhaust the

virgin soil they get so cheap, regardless of manures

and agricultural arts by which its fertility might be

maintained. Upon a process of this kind the able

argument of Prof. Caimes in his " Slave Power " is

r founded, but in fact, exhaustive agriciilture and

\ migration are the necessary results in any country,

or social system of a boundless supply of rich lands.

I It must pay better to take the cream off the land

I "when the farmer can freely select new farms of

P untouched richness. A gradual inland migration is

;5ie5

1 fit' Vx*^^

the result, tod so rapidly has this gone on in the
United States towards the West, that already the
settlers in Minnesota, Washington and Nebraska
territories are on the verge of deserts that never
can be cultivated. And we cannot but acquiesce
in the apparently extravagant estimates of American
writers Iceniag AelL constant growth of
their population. So long as there is even a shadow
of law and security for life and property left, people
will multiply over lands so rich, that as an American
orator sai^if you tickle tibem with a hoe they will
laugh with a harvest^'

To appreciate the growth of the American people
we need only look upon the results of the American
census.

Tear.

PnpulatioiL

Nnmerical Increase.

Rate per cent of
increase.

1790

3,922,827

180()

5,305,937

1,383,110

1810

7,239,814

1,933,877

1820

9,638,191

2,398,377

1830

12,866,020

3,227,829

1840

17,069,453

4,203,433

1850

23,191,876

6,122,423

1860

31,445,080

8,253,204

TTie Prohlem of the Trading Bodies. 319

If we compare the above with the corresponding
results for our population/ it will be seen that we
have scarcely anything here to equal the rate of
American increase in constancy or amount. The
general rate of growth in America is double our
highest rate (18 per cent.) for the country as a
whole, and is just equal to the rate of progress of
Glamorgan at present, or of our manufacturing
towns at their period of most rapid increase (1821-
1831).

The very emigration which checks the rapidity of
our growth contributes to maintain that of America,
and unless complete anarchy and disorganization
should fall upon the once happy United States,
Iiothing is more probable in political matters than
that their population will grow both by internal
multiplication and by vast and ceaseless increments
from Europe. Thus it is not altogether an extra-
vagant estimate of the Superintendent of the
American Census that the population of the States
will number 100 millions of persons before the year
1900.'

With such a growth of population agriculture
must*soon be carried to its first limits. Within half
a century, probably the choicest lands will have

' Chapter ix.
'' * See American Finances and Resources. Letter No. V. of R. J.
Walker, M.A. London, 1864, p. 13.

320 The Coal Question.

been taken up, and the second and third rate must
be settled, or the old exhausted lands revived by
more diligent culture. Agriculture, in short, will
begin to lose its extremely easy and profitable
character in the States.

On the other hand, coal, yet to be had at the
mere cost of quarrying, will offer more and more
tempting employment comparatively to agriculture.
In other words, labour no longer drawn away by the
superior attractions of agriculture will become abun-
dant in manufacture, and at last a sound system of
metallurgical industry will grow up on the banks of
the Ohio, capable of ahnost indefinite extension.

It is this decadence of agriculture joined to the
rise of a manufacturing system which most dis-
tinctly threatens our commercial position. Com
will be growing dearer in the States, while coal and
iron are growing dearer here. The industrial con-
ditions of England and the States will thus approxi-
mate to equilibrium, and the advantages of trade will
diminish. We shall neither buy corn from them, nor
sell iron articles to them. And at the same time
America will tend to supplant us in the European
market for iron and other crude materials, and in all
parts of the world in the market for textile and
useful manufactured articles in general.

Then, if not before then, the continuous multipU-

The Problem of the Tradwg Bodies. 321

cation of our home population and industry will
receive a check, and a definitive choice of wholesale
emigration or a change of habits presented to us.
And it must be further observed that by the time
in question our consumption of coal will certainly
be several times as great as at present. Our total
available stores of coal divided by the annual con-
sumption will give a proportionately shorter period
of even stationary duration. And while our colonial
states will be growing in the vigour of youth,
receiving our whole offspring, and establishing new
currents of trade far from our shores, our strength
will tend to fail continuously.

Of course at the worst we shall not be devoid
of many resoiurces. Our position, *' anchored by the
side of Europe,'' and close to the terrestrial centre
of the globe, gives us a claim to the carrying and
trading business of the world, which previously
belonged to our close neighbours the Dutch. And
our manufactures, though they must diminish in
size and importance, may improve in finish and
artistic merit. Our work will be that of the trinket
and the watch rather than that of the Herculean
engine— handiwork rather than machine work. We
shaU probably approximate to the manufactaring
condition of Western Europe, and the extreme
elegance of our earthenware, glass and many small

322 The Coal Question.

inanu£EU^tures raises the hope that we may attain
a high rank in artistic manufactures.

But excellence in such smaller matters can ill com-
pensate the loss of our present positive supremacy
in the elements of engineering and maritime success.
When navigation and the construction of a fleet is
« pure question of coal mining and iron metaUuigy,
it is hard to see how we can ensure that invincibility
on the seas wHch is essential to the safely of an
insular nation dependent on commerce forits very
bread-

The rate of our progress and exhaustion must
depend greatly upon the legislation of colonies
and foreign states. Should France revert to a
less enlightened commercial policy, should Europe
maintain or extend a prohibitory system, should
the Northern States succeed in restoring the Union
and erecting a permanent Morrill tariff for the
benefit of Pennsylvanian manufacturers, and should
the tendency of all our colonies towards protection
increase, the progress of trade may indeed be vastly
retarded. Under these circumstances the present
rapid rate of our growth may soon be somewhat
checked. The introduction of railways, the repeal
of the Com Laws, the sudden settlement of our
Australian colonies, may prove exceptional events.
Then, after a period of somewhat painful depression,

The Problem of the Ti^ading Bodies. 323

we may fall into a lower rate of progress, that can
be maintained for a lengthened period, passing out
of sight.

But on the whole Free Trade is likely to extend
itself on the Continent. Our colonies, after a brief
experience, may see through their mistaken and
highly prejudicial views; and the Americans will
hardly succeed in their apparent object of rendering
their continent a self-contained Chinese-like Empire,
unknown to European trade and intercourse. And
in other parts of the world — -Africa, Asia, and South
America — ^there is sure to be a general and perhaps
a very great opening for future trade.
. It may reasonably be questioned whether a great
and continuous increase of our industry is desirable
in a national point of view. But for those colonies
and countries which trade with us it is an unalloyed
benefit. Com would be a drug in North America,
animal products in South America, and wool in
Australia, but for the market we offer ; and were not
political economy a rather rare and difficult study,
the inhabitants of the States, and of our colonies
generally, would be aware that the development of
th^ pastoral and agiicultural powers of a new
country is the first and most appropriate source of
riches. It is the very profits thus gained that
render wages high, and labour as it is said too scarce

Y 2

324 The Coal Question.

for manufactures to exist To receive the products
of a mature system of labour^ like that of England,
in return for the raw products of the soil is the true
mode of creating a rich and populous colony. When

the soil is fully occupied it will be time to think of
imitating and competing with older countries.

But manufacturers are always the firsts as Sir
Robert Peel remarked, to desire artificial restrictions.
Thiis colonial manufacturers constantly aver that it
is only the overflowing pauper population of the old
world that enables them to undersell the produc*
tions of a colony. They seize, too, upon an unfor-
tunate paragraph in Mr. J. S. Mill's work on,
Political Economy,* in which that eminent writer,
in a very qualified manner, recommends protection
as a convenient mode of giving a first impulse to
a branch of manufacture. In the abstract this may
be right, but practically such advice would work-—
and in fact is working — evil in nine cases out of ten.

It is indeed a reproach constantly hurled upon
England, even by her own offspring, that she only
removed her restrictions — her navigation laws, her
prohibition of the export of machinery, and of the
import of Continental manufactures — when they were
no longer necessary. It is, however^ quite doubtful
whether we derived any real benefit from the navi-

i Principles, &c. Book v. chap. x. Third edition, vol. vl pp. 607, 508.

The Problem of the Trading Bodies. 325

gation laws ; there is no doubt that the other
restrictions were a great injury to our progress, and
in no way assisted the rise of our arts. The
attempted strict exclusion of Continental manu-
factures greatly conduced to our stationary condi-
tion in the first half of laat century, and I am wholly
unable to see how it the least forwarded those great
inventions in metallurgy and mechanism which did
cause our rise. Yet we continually meet in foreign
authors such remarks as these : " The requisite skill
and development of the mineral resources have been
obtained by a century of experience, when foreign
competition was religiously excluded hy prohibitory
duties, until England could make iron cheaper than
all the world, and since then domestic competition
has cheapened the processes, and reduced the cost to
the lowest practicable limit.'*

The falsity of the statement as regards the point
in view is apparent. JFrom the very same writer I
have already quoted the statement that about the
middle of kist century England imported four-fifths
of the iron she consumed.^ The high price of iron
had long retarded, not forwarded, the progress of
the engine, the railway, and the mechanical works
generally by which alone our manufacturing system
could be adequately developed.

» P. 284.

326 The Coal Question.

Our growth then has been nourished by freedom,
not by restrictions; and if kindred colonies and
nations and foreign states wish to raise the world
generally into the earliest and highest state of
wealth, they will push trade to its utmost^ without
jealousy of the immediate wealth it confers upon
us, in virtue of our coal resources, and our well
developed skill.

Any attempt on the part of foreign nations to
cripple the development of our trade injures them
far more than us. The Morrill tariff, for instance,
the most retrograde piece of legislation that this
century has witnessed, almost wholly recoils upon
the nation which submits to it. The effect upon us
is seen in a temporary and inconsiderable check to
one or two of our branches of industry. Its effect
upon America is to cut it off from intercourse with
the rest of the civilized world, to destroy its mari-
time influence, and to arrest, as far as human inter-
ference can arrest, the development of a great state.
No doubt it enables a manufacturing interest to
grow half a century or more before its time ; but
just so much as one interest is forcibly promoted so
much are other interests forcibly held back. And
no system of industry thus requiring the unnatural
stimulus of government protection can compete with
foreign systems stimulated by natural circumstances.

I*^ ProUem of the Tmdxng Ihxiio^, S«V

Whenmanu&ctare is naturally movo. pnttil^iMo «n\iu
pared widi agriculture in Amcricui tlwm in Unffini.
we shall be supplanted, and not lM<fnrt« \\\o\\. Tho
advent of tliat period can l>c haHtrniMl unl y \\\ V\su\
d<Hn of industry and trade, not by li'^ir*l«livo Ao\ w%^
For the world at large it nmy 1k« U\u\ "\\u\\ \\\*^
free use of our resources must Ik* tin' moni lK«iu»ni'4«il ^
for the present worth of even c)iii» fKuii inliiui^ «'OtilMt.\
18 &T more than that of a t.Iioiiwih<l \cMOa \\\wm
trade is harassed by rofltrioiituin mul rlu»okoil ^\
the exercise of groundloHH fi'iu'H." lint if *«» l**^ ua
to consider whether restrictiojiH may iitil l»i» hoios
saiy to check the lavish unci of our iiuittMial \\ti(it(h,
and add to the duration of our truu (•oiiiiiuuiwodllli.

328 The Coal Qtiestuyn.

CHAPTER XVI.

OF TAXES AND RESTRICTIONS ON THE COAL TRADE.

A FEW pages may be given to considering the policy
of imposing duties and restrictions with a view to
limit the consumption of our fuel.

The prohibition of the export of coal is the first
step which naturally suggests itself, and it has often
been advocated. Dr. Buckland, when asked, before
the Committee on the coal trade of 1830, his opinion
of the policy of allowing exportation, answered : —
"It is permitting foreigners to consume the vitals
of our own posterity. I consider coals the stamina
upon which the manufacturing prosperity of the
country primarily depends ; and I think it our duty
not to spare one ounce of coals to any person but
ourselves."

The imposition of a more or less heavy duty on
the export of coal is certainly the way we should
commence a prohibitory system. Such a duty might
be imposed for any of the following purposes : —

Taxes mid Restrictions on (he Coal Trade. 329

■ iat. To raise revenue.

2d. To cripple the competing manufactures of
other nations.

3d. To discourage exportation, and thus spare our
stores of coal.

It is plain that the first purpose is more or less
inconsistent with the other two.

I can see no general reasons against levying
revenue by an export duty. Sir E. Peel, indeed,
adopted as a principle of English finance, "that
with respect to exports there shall be no duty
leviable. I am unwilling," he continued,' " to make
any exception to this principle." And to the present
day the rule has, I believe, been upheld without
exception. Yet there are no principles of economic
science, so far as I know, bearing against export
duties that do not equally bear against import
duties. There are only the general arguments
against any restrictions on commercial intercourse.
In fact Sir K. Peel had himself previously said,
when proposing the coal tax of 1842 : "I must say
I cannot conceive any more legitimate object of
duty than coal exported to foreign countries. I
speak of a reasonable and just duty, and I aay that
a tax levied on an article produced in this country —

' Haiuard'e Debatea, thiid series, vol, UxviL p. 476.

330 The Goal Question.

an element of manufactures— necessary to manufac-
tures— contributing by its export to increase the
competition with our own manufactures^ — ^I think
that a tax on such an article is a perfectly legitiniate
source of revenue." *

Lord Overstone, too, asserted in his speech on the
Commercial Treaty with France, a speech distdn-
guished by his usual clearness and soundness of
thought, that an export duty on a commodity of
peculiar value and limited supply, like coal, may be
an advantageous and legitimate source of revenue.

Instances of export duties of a similar kind are
not wanting, but they are rather unfortunate in-
stances. The Spaniards taxed Peruvian gold ; the
Sicilian Government, sulphur ; Russia, its products of
tallow, hemp, and flax. In India we raise a large
revenue of the kind on opium, and the Slave States
propose an impost on cotton. Too high a duty, in-
deed, is apt to draw out foreign competition, and
ruin at once the trade and revenue, as the sulphur
trade of Italy was for a time ruined. But we do
not fear competition with Newcastle coal ; we rather
desire to avoid the foreign competition to buy it,
and there seem accordingly to be no abstract ob-
jections to a duty on coal exported.

But I think that Lord Overstone in advocating

* Hansard's Debates, third series, vol. Ixi. p. 448, ^

Taxes and Restrictions on the Coal Tinde. 331

sadi a duty, as a source of revenue, must have over*
looked that peculiar relation of coal to our shipping
interest which I have endeavoured to explain in
chapter xii. The fact is that such a tax would be
paid by ourselves as entirely as the tax on dogs, or
men-servants, with the further disadvantage that we
should pay it throtigh and to the discouragement of
our navigation. It would be equivalent to a duty
on outward tonnage.

For as our coals, in nearly every part of the
world, meet and compete with inferior native coals or
other fuel, the freight and price have to be lowered
imtil the competition is successful Witness the
rate to Callao, which is no more than that to Spain.
If a is. coal duty were imposed, our shipowners
would receive about 45. less freight to most places,
which consumers would ultimately pay in the shape
of increased inward freights and prices of foreign
articles. At the same time it must be allowed that
the reduction of outward freights would stimulate
the exportation of any other heavy commodities
Jike bricks, cement, earthenware, slates, flag-stones,
paving-stones, salt, pig-ii'on, &c. which could be
found profitably to take the place of coal as ballast
On the whole it may be said that there are even
more reasons against a tax on coal as a source of
revemie than might be urged conccming most taxes.

332 The Coal Questwii.

It would be paid oat of our pockets as mucli as the
income-tax, and would act besides as a restriction
on commerce and a burden on navigation.

To impose a duty on coals to injure Continental
manufactures on the sea-board towns, is ia purp6se
that no English statesman in the present day would
avow. It was on the contrary argued by Mr. Glad-
stone and others, in carrying the Commercial Treaty
through the House of Commons, that a large manu-*
facturing interest on the French coasts dependent
on English coal, would be an excellent guarantee for
the peace and extended intercourse we so ardently
desire with that country.

There only remains the question of a partially or
completely prohibitory duty on the simple and legi-
timate ground of self-defence, to save our posterity,
if possible, from the misery and danger that a failure
of our coal-mines would bring upon them. No one,
I think, will deny that if our exports continue to
increase as rapidly as they have done, rising from
3i millions of tons in 1851 to 8 millions in 1863,
we must draw in a little, and make some com-
mencement of a restrictive system antithetical to
that free trade policy which stimulates the drain.
If indeed we are again to resort to restrictions on
trade, it is not apparent why we repealed the Corn
Laws, which might have been far more efficient in

Taxes and Restrictions on the Coal Trade. 333

preventing the exhaustion of our coal-mines than
any measures we are now likely to adopt. Nor is
it quite apparent why we should stop the export of
coal and not that of pig iron, every ton of whieh
represents the consumption of two or three tons of
eoaL The question of a prohibitory tax is but a
part of the general question whether we do wisely
in allowing a suicidal development of trade, and
this question will be again referred to in my con-
cluding remarks.

But whatever we may say of a duty on coals per
se, it will be allowed by most persons that the
celebrated 11th clause of the French Commercial
Treaty, restricting us from laying any export duly
on coals during the continuance of the treaty (ten
years) was scarcely worthy of the wisdom and
dignity of the two contracting powera " It is not
necessary for my present argument," said Lord
Overstone,' " to contend positively that we ought to
impose a duty upon the export of that article. It is
sufficient for me to say that the question is one of
great importance, and that our power to exercise
a free discretion, now or hereafter, on that point,
ought not to have been surrendered." So much as
regards the export duty on coal.

It is IiartUy necessary to discuss a duty on all

' Hansard's Debatea, third Beriea, 1660, vol. clvii. p. 597.

334 The Coal Qtiesttojt.

coal raiaea front the pit's mouth. Such a duty of
28. per ton was proposed by Pitt in 17849 at the
beginning of hi8 great fiuaacial career. But it was
on the express ground that sea-borne coal was
already burdened with duties of long standing, and
that equalization of burdens was desirable. He
intended, too, to exempt manufaeturers from the
impost as &r as possible. But only a week after
pr^ the Jmt. Ktt »id. «th the candour
that distuiguiBhed his greatneaa, « from the mformi..
tion he had been able to collect upon the subject, he
found men's minds so adverse to the tax, and that
it would be necessary to make such a variety of
exceptions and regulations in order to prevent it
from having an injurious effect on one or other of
our manufactures, that he thought it more expedient
to abandon the tax/'*

The character of a general tax on coal was truly
stated by Robert Bald. " It would unnerve the
very sinews of our trade, and be a death-blow to
our flourishing manufactories. Were our deter-
mined enemy set in council, to deliberate upon a
plan to wound us in a vital point as a nation, the
advising the imposing of this tax would be the
most successful he could possibly suggest." And
again he says truly, " a small tax on the ton of

* Hansard's Parliamentary History, vol. xxiv. p. 1215.

Tdoces aiid Restrictions on the Coal Trade. 335

coal would be a heavy tax on the ton of iron. The
whole of our mining concerns depend as to their
prosperity upon the abundance and cheapness of
fiiel^ and if the price be increased by means of
taxes, the utility of the steam-engine will be greatly
abridged." *

Lord Kames^ Sir J. Sinclair, and Adam Smith
were the most distinguished of the many writers
who deplored the mischief wrought by the old taxes
on sea-borne coal, in retarding the progress of towns
and country places^ where cheap coal might other-
wise have been enjoyed. But it is impossible to
describe adequately the all-pervading bane that a
general tax on coal would be. A rise of price in
coal, whether from taxation or scarcity, must levy
open and insidious contributions upon us in a
manner with which no other tax whatever can
compare. Sidney Smith described how a man in
former days was taxed at every step from the cradle
to the coffin. But through coals we shall be taxed
in everything and at every moment. Our food will
be taxed as it crosses the ocean, as it is landed by
steam upon the wharf, as it is drawn away by the
locomotive, as the com is ground and the bread
mixed and kneaded and baked by steam, and the
meat is boiled and roasted by the kitchen fire. The

* On the Scotch Coal Trade, p. 197.

336 The Coal Question.

bricks and mortar, the iron joists, the timber that
is carried and sawn and planed by steam, wiU be
taxed. The water that is pimiped into our houses,
and the sewage that is pumped away, and the gas
that lights us in and out will be taxed. Not an
article of furniture or ornament, not a thread of our
clothes, not a carriage we drive in, nor a pair of
shoes we walk in, but is partly made by coal, and
will be taxed with it.

And most things wiU be taxed over and over
again at each stage of manufacture. Materials will
be burthened in the cost of steam-carriage, and the
want of outward coal-freight — ^in their steam con-
veyance here — in the machinery that is to manufac-
J: the.-.h. engine to arivT.he n^e^. A.
every step some tool, some substance, some opera-
tion will suffer in cost from the use of taxed coaL

A general coal-tax, too, would be subject to prac-
tical difficulties. Coals differ so much in kind and
quality and size, that an uniform tax would be pro*
hibitory of the use of small or inferior coals, and
great quantities would be lost and burnt upon the
waste heaps. An ad valorem duty, or one graduated
to the size of the coal, would entail endless trouble
and fraud.

On coals for domestic use a tax would in theory
be very desirable ; but it would entail a change of

Taxes and Restrictions on the Coal Trade. 337

national habits among a people who look upon a
cheerful fireside as one of the most pleasant things
in life. It was really a tax on domestic consumption
that Pitt proposed, for he intended to exempt all
factories largely consuming coaL But to discrimi-
nate the coal used for different purposes would be
a difficult or impossible task for the Inland Revenue
department.

A tax on coal-gas in domestic consumption might
be most readily collected from the inspection of the
Gas Companies' books, and would be a beneficial
tax in some ways.

Little need be said of other possible modes of
legislatiiig with a view to saying coal. To oblige
manufacturers to discard old wasteful engines and
furnaces would be a wholly unjustifiable inter-
ference. It would destroy much property that is
now profitable, and render necessary the investment
of other capital now profitably engaged elsewhere.
And in the building of new engines and furnaces
individuals can alone judge properly what forms are
most suitable for their purposes, and they are sure
not to forget the profit to be derived from a reduced
consumption of fuel

We could hardly prohibit the burning of duff and
slack coal on the colliery heaps, seeing that if not
lighted they will take fire by spontaneous combus-

338 The Coal Question.

tion of the pyrites. To prohibit the screening of
coal, again, would deprive many manufacturers of
the cheap small coal which is essential to their busi-
ness. And to attempt to enforce economical modes
of mining and working coal, would be to interfere by
legWation in lie mJ«.eerWn of entopri«^ whi
no rules can be laid do wn, but the individual circum-
stances of each pit determine its mode of working.

Nothing is more easy than to suggest that the
Legislature should interfere to check the waste of
coal so much wanted by posterity. But when we
examine the several possible modes of interference
it will be found that they all break the principles
of industrial freedom, to the recognition of which,
since the time of Adam Smith, we attribute so
much of our success. Equal objections can be
urged against interference with internal industry, or
external commerce. To tax home industry would
strike more at the root of our wealth ; a coal export
duty would be less burdensome, but it would lay us
open to the imputation of perfidy. The greater
part of the world would regard any approach to a
new restrictive system as the appropriate sequel to
that cunning and successful course of commercial
manoeuvre, which they consider we have pursued
since the time of Cromwell. It would seem that
we have placed ourselves in a painful dilemma ; we

Taoces and Restrictions on the Coal Trade. 339

must either retract the professions we have made to
the world and the principles we have so recently
adopted, or else we must submit to see our material
resources exhausted in a shorter period than could
have been thought possible.

The only suggestion I can make towards compen-
eating posterity for our present lavish use of cheap
coal is one that it requires some boldness to make.
I mean the reduction or pajdng off of the National
Debt. It has long indeed become a fashion to talk
of this as a chimerical notion. And on various
pretexts, but really from " the ignorant impatience
of taxation,'^ we go on enduring this vast gap in the
capital of the country.

An annual appropriation towards the reduction of
the debt would serve the three purposes of adding
to the productive capital of the country, of slightly
checking our present too rapid progress, and of
lessening the future difl&culties of the country. If
commenced without delay, and continued with per-
severance, the vast debt, now nearly eight hundred
millions sterling, might be easily reduced to incon-
siderable dimensions within that period now before
us, which we must believe to comprise England's
climax of prosperity.

A most suitable and unobjectionable mode of
effecting the payment presents itself. It is well

340 7%e Coal Question.

known that the legacy and succession duties are of
a very improvident nature, because they yearly con-
vert a portion of the property of the country into
income, and expend it, instead of expending the
annual interest only. The country, to the extent of
about one-twentieth of its revenue, acts the part of
a spendthrift in spending what it ought to invest,
and trade upon, and transmit to its descendants for
their similar use.

Now this investment would be duly made by
transferring the whole proceeds of the duty to the
Commissioners for the Reduction of the National
Debt, not aQowing it to enter into the annual
balance sheet of the Chancellor of the Exchequer.
Of course it would be useless to do this unless, the
remaining revenue were maintained at least equal to
the expenditure. It would be absurd to pay debts
on one hand and contract them on the other, in the
manner of the old sinking fund. But such is the
growing condition of our revenue, that the appropri-
ation could easily be made, had we the patience to
refrain for a very few years from those constant
demands for the remission of taxes which are now
become an unreasonable habit. After a very brief
period remission of taxes might again go on,
gradually accelerated by the reduction of the annual
charge of the debt.

Taxes and Restiictions on the Coal Trade. 841

At the present time we enjoy the risiug tide of
prosperity due to the unprecedented commercial
reforms of the last twenty years. Are we wise in
pushing our present enjoyment to the extreme by
remitting every penny of taxes we can possibly
spare ? And would not the present appropriation
of the legacy duty to a special purpose ensure us
future remissions at a time when they will be
grateful and useful in contributing to uphold for
a little longer a rate of progress which is noWj if
anything, too rapid ?

It cannot be doubted that before long, if at all,
an effort must be made to relieve the country of
this burden. Writers of the last century entertained
most gloomy anticipations concerning the growing
debt, and they were only wrong in undervaluing
the industrial revolution which was then proceeding.
But now we run the risk of being too confident, and
losing the grand opportunities we enjoy. It is
growing wealth that makes a happy and prosperous
country, and, no matter what be the absolute wealth
of the country at a future time, it is idle to suppose
that a popular government with a stationary revenue
would ever impose new taxes to pay off an old debt
It is when a surplus revenue grows of its own accord,
as at present, that we can alone expect a successful
effort to be made.

342 27ie Coal Question.

As a common pretext against any attempt to
repay the National Debt it is said that we had
better remit taxes instead, and " leave the money to
fructify in the hands of the people." But tiiis is
wholly erroneous. Taxes are, partly at least, paid
out of income which would o Jrwii be unp Juc-
tively expended ; part only is subtracted from the
fund of productive capital But in investing the
proceeds of a tax in Consols, towards the reduction
of the great debt, almost the whole money will be
added to the productive capital of the country, and
will be placed most certainly in the hands which
will make it fructify in trade and industrial enter-
prises.

The present Chancellor of the Exchequer has
already devoted a good many millions of surplus
revenue to the reduction of the debt, and has con-
verted several millions more into terminable annui-
ties. What is still better, he has often spoken of the
debt in a manner which shows he would like to do
more. Could a minister be found strong and bold
enough to carry out a permanent and large measure
towards the same end, he would have an almost
unprecedented claim to gratitude and fame.

And were the work once taken in hand, the
notions that the payment of the debt is impossible,
or Utopian, or undesirable, would quickly be dis-

Taxes and Restrictions on the Coal Trade. 343

perseA They are mere fallacies of habit. But in
regard to our present subject we find, in the above
proposed measure, a legitimate and practicable mode
of giving some compensation to our posterity, who
wilfundoubtedly Jer t^ ^ incl^ price of
coal, the worst of taxea

344 The Coal Question.

CHAPTEE XVII.

CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS.

My work is completed in pointing out the necessary
results of our present rapid multiplication when
brought into comparison with a fixed amount of
material resources. The social and political conse-
quences to ourselves and to the world of a partial
exhaustion of our mines are of an infinitely higher
degree of uncertainty than the event itself, and
cannot be made the subject of argument. But
feeling as we must do that they will be of an unto-
ward, if not of a ruinous character, it is impossible
to close without a few further remarks upon the
truly solemn question, — ^Are we wise in allowing
the commerce of this country to rise beyond the
point at which we can long maintain it ?

To say the simple truth, will it not appear evident,
soon after the final adoption of Free Trade princi-
ples, that our own resources are just those to which
such principles ought to be applied last and most

Concluding Reflections. 345

cautiously? To paxt in trade with the surplus
yearly interest of the soil may be unalloyed gain,
but t/O disperse so lavishly the cream of our mineral
wealth is to be spendthrifts of our capital— to part
with that which will never come back.

And, after all, commerce is but a means to an end,
the diffusion of civilization and wealth. To allow
commerce to proceed until the source of civilization
is weakened and overturned is like killing the goose
to get the golden egg. I. the m>meal option
of material wealth to be our only object ? Are the
excellences of Britain to be measured in tons and
quarters, and her work in the world to be recorded
in her Custom-house books? Have we not here-
ditary possessions in our just laws, our free and
nobly developed constitution, our rich literature and
philosophy, incomparably above material wealth,
and which we are beyond all things bound to
maintain, improve, and hand down in safety ? And
do we accomplish this duty in encouraging a growth
of industry which must prove unstable, and perhaps
involve all things in its fall ?

But the more is said on the one side of this perplex-
ing question the more there seems to be to say on the
other side. We can hardly separate the attributes
and performances of a kingdom, and have some
without the others. The resplendent genius of our

346 The Coal Question.

Elizabethan age might never have been manifested
but in a period equally conspicuous for good order,
industrial progress, and general enterprise. The
early Hanoverian period, on the other hand, was as
devoid of noMi.7 .s it waa »t.tioB.,y in weald,
and popnUti<„.\ elea. and ^^ is <»
be looked for in a wholesome state of the body. So
in our Victorian age we may owe indirectly to the
lavish expenditure of our material energy far more
than we^ readily conceive. No pa^o function
of a nation is independent of the rest, and in fear-
lessly foUowing our instincts of rapid growth we
may rear a fabric of varied civilization, we may
develop talents and virtues, and propagate in-
fluences which could not have resulted from slow
restricted growth however prolonged.

The wish surely could never rise into the mind of
any Englishman that Britain should be stationary
and lasting as she was, rather than of growing and
world-wide influence as she is. To secure a safe
smallness we should have to go back, and strangle
in their birth those thoughts and inventions which
redeemed us from dulness and degradation a century
ago. Could we desire that Savery and Newcomen
had abandoned their tiresome engines, that Darby
had slept before the iron ran forth, that the Duke
had broken before Brindley had completed his

Concluding Reflections. 347

canal, that Watt had kept to his compasses and
rules, or Adam Smith burnt his manuscript in
despair? Such experiments could not have suc-
ceeded, and such writings been published among a
free and active people in our circumstances with-
out leading to the changes that have been. Thence
necessarily came the growth of manufactures and of
people; thence the inexplicable power with which
we fought and saved the Continent; thence the
initiation of a free-trade policy by Pitt, the growth
of a middle class, and the rise of a series of states*
men — Canning, Huskisson, Peel, and Cobden — ^to
represent their views and powers.

Our new industry and civilization had an obscure
and unregarded commencement ; it is great abeady,
and will be far greater yet before it is less. It is
questionable whether a country in any sense free
can suffer such a grand movement to begin without
suffering it to proceed its own length. One inven-
lion, ofe art, one development I commerce, one
ameUoration of society foUows another almost as
eflfect follows cause. And it is well that our bene-
ficial influence is not bounded by our narrow wisdom
or our selfish desires. Let us stretch our knowledge
and our foresight to the furthest, yet we act by
powers and towards ends of which we are not
conscious. . -

348 The Coal Question.

In our contributions to the arts, for instance, we
have unintentionally done a work that will endure
for ever. In whatever part of the world fuel exists,
whether wood, or peat, or coal, we have rendered it
the possible basis of a new civilization. In the
ancient mythology, fire was a stolen* gift from
heaven, but it is our countrymen who have shown
the powers of fire, and conferred a second Prome-
thean gift upon the world. Without undue self-
gratulation, may we not say in the words of Bacon ?
—"The introduction of new inventions seeraeth to
be the very chief of aU human actions. The benefits
of new inventions may extend to all mankind uni-
versally, but the good of political achievements can
respect but some particular cantons of men ; these
latter do not endure above a few ages, the former
for ever. Inventions make all men happy without
either injury or damage to any one single person.
Furthermore, new inventions are, as it were, new
erections and imitations of God's own works."

When our great spring is here run down, our fires
half burnt out, may we not look for an increasing
flame of civilization elsewhere ? Ours are not the
only resources of fuel. Britain may contract to her
former littleness, and her people be again distin-
guished for homely and hardy virtues, for a clear
intellect and a regard for law, rather than for

Concluding Reflections. 349

brilliancy and power. But our name and race, our
language, history, and literature, our love of freedom
and our instincts of self-government, will live in a
world-wide sphere. We have already planted the
stocks of multiplying nations in most parts of the
earth, and, in spite of discouraging tendencies, it
is hardly for us to doubt that they will prove a
noble offspring.

The alternatives before us are simple. Our empire
and race already comprise one-fifth of the world's
population, and by our plantation of new states, by
our guardianship of the seas, by our penetrating
commerce, by the example of our just laws and firm
constitution, and above all by the dissemination of
our new arts, we stimulate the progress of mankind
in a degree not tQ be measured. If we lavishly and
boldly fushforw^d in the «eatio,».adi»«L«a
of our riches, it is hard to over-estimate the pitch
of beneficial influence to which we may attain in
the present. But the maintenance of such a posi-
tion is physically impossible. We have to make
the mx>7mntous choice between brief greatness and
longer continued mediocrity.

THE END.

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